US: Iran has one-week 'opportunity' to defuse standoff

The warning from Washington came as a senior Russian official said Moscow and Tehran would on Tuesday resume 11th-hour talks aimed at easing the tense standoff, after early reports of a tentative compromise seemed to fizzle out.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) meets March 6 to assess whether to refer the Iranian nuclear dossier to the UN Security Council, which has the power to introduce sanctions on Iran over the nuclear issue.

"We've said that during this time the regime in Iran has an opportunity to change their ways and change their behavior when it comes to the nuclear program," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan.

"The international community remains concerned about the regime's behavior and about their intentions when it comes to their nuclear program. That's why the matter has been reported to the United Nations Security Council," he said.

His comments came as the IAEA reported that Iran is planning to set up 3,000 centrifuges as it moves towards industrial-scale uranium enrichment in defiance of Western fears that this could be used to make nuclear weapons.

The confidential IAEA report may be crucial in the UN Security Council's deciding whether to take punitive action against Iran, which the United States accuses of seeking nuclear weapons under cover of a civilian atomic program.

The IAEA has called on Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment work.

But Iran is pushing ahead and on February 15 fed a 10-centrifuge research cascade at a facility in Natanz with the uranium gas that is processed into enriched uranium, which can also be used as fuel for nuclear power reactors.

Earlier, McClellan reacted warily to Iran's announcement that it had reached an agreement in principle with Russia on a plan under which the two countries would set up a joint venture on Russian territory for enrichment of uranium to be used in Iran's first nuclear power station.

"We will see. Given their history, you can understand why we remain skeptical," McClellan said. "The regime has shown they cannot be trusted."

Russia also poured cold water on talk of a possible compromise, saying there was still much work to be done to reach agreement and warning that time was quickly running out ahead of the March 6 deadline.

Moscow also urged Tehran to suspend uranium enrichment work in Iran, a critical sticking point in diplomatic efforts to end the standoff.

"The Russian proposal to create a joint venture for the enrichment of uranium in Russia is part of a general effort to remove concerns on the Iranian nuclear program," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told journalists.

"We are convinced that, among other components of this effort, a moratorium on enrichment of uranium in Iran is required until all issues have been clarified by the experts" of the IAEA, he added.

Lavrov's comments provided one of the clearest indications to date that Russia was in line with the European Union and the United States in diplomatic efforts to persuade Iran to compromise in granting a measure of international control over the most sensitive aspects of its nuclear program.

Russia is building Iran's first nuclear power station but shares Western concerns that Tehran may use its civilian nuclear program to camouflage plans to build nuclear weapons.

While vehemently denying this, Iran insists on total control over the uranium enrichment process, which can be used to produce both nuclear fuel and the core ingredient of nuclear bombs.

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