White House unhappy with Iran nuke proposal

The White House expressed unhappiness on Saturday over Iran's announcement that it was ready to exchange uranium for nuclear fuel.

Such a deal would meet a key demand of a United Nations-sponsored effort to defuse fears over Iran's nuclear ambitions. But instead of shipping most of its uranium abroad for processing before it is returned to Tehran, Iran's foreign minister said Saturday that the material instead would be exchanged in batches.

A senior Obama administration official says that proposal is inconsistent with the UN plan.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the issue, urged Iran to accept the UN offer to help build confidence in claims that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.

Iran's stockpile of uranium is at the heart of international concerns because it offers Iran a possible pathway to nuclear weapons production if it is enriched to higher levels. Tehran insists it only wants to use the material to produce fuel for power plants and for other peaceful purposes.

Under a UN plan proposed in October and being pushed by Washington and five other world powers, Iran would ship most of its uranium - up to 1,200 kilograms of it - abroad. It would then be enriched to higher levels in Russia, turned into fuel rods in France and returned to power a research reactor in Tehran that produces medical isotopes.

The material in the fuel rods cannot be enriched to higher levels, denying Iran the ability to use it to make weapons.

We accepted the proposal in principle, Foreign Minister Manochehr Mottaki told reporters at a regional security conference in Bahrain.

In what is almost certain to be a deal breaker, however, he spoke of exchanging the material in phases rather than all at once as is called for in the UN plan. He said Iran had offered to make a first shipment of 400 kilograms of enriched uranium.

Carrying it out in slow stages would leave Iran in control of enough uraniumto make a bomb.

Officials at the UN nuclear agency could not be reached for comment Saturday.

In another change to the plan, Iran wants to receive the fuel rods immediately in simultaneous exchanges for its uranium because it says it is worried that France or Russia could renege on the deal.

Another unanswered question is whether the uranium Iran is offering to exchange would actually be shipped out of the country or just left - perhaps under observation - inside its borders in what would present another departure from the UN plan.

Mottaki suggested the exchanges take place on Iran's Kish island, in the Persian Gulf, but he did not clarify whether the uranium would leave Irahian soil.

We gave a clear answer and we responded, and our answer was we accepted in principle but there were differences in the mechanism, he said Saturday, speaking through a translator.

Further confusing matters, as of a few days ago, the UN's nuclear agency had yet to receive a concrete Iranian counterproposal - or a response of any kind - to its initiative.

Mottaki's remarks, in which he insisted a response had been sent, were part of a string of conflicting Iranian statements that began with initial word in October that the country would accept the proposal as is. Several Iranian lawmakers later rejected the plan outright.

Some 15 to 30 kilograms of uranium enriched to levels above 90 percent would be needed to produce a nuclear bomb. Iran has about 1,500 kilograms of 3.5 percent, or low-enriched uranium - enough to produce highly enriched material for two such weapons.

Last month, the 35-nation board of the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency endorsed a resolution from the six powers - the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany - criticizing Iran for defying a UN Security Council ban on uranium enrichment and continuing to expand its operations.

It also censured Iran for secretly building a second enrichment facility and demanded that it immediately suspend further construction on it.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said last month that the U.N. offer has been comprehensively rejected by Iran. A diplomat from one of the six powers said Wednesday that America's Western allies were waiting for Washington to formally declare the wait for an Iranian response over, probably by the end of this month.

The six countries are expected to meet next week to discuss what action to take over Iran.

EU leaders said they would support further UN sanctions unless Tehran starts cooperating over its nuclear program.

	Iranian Foreign Minister Manochehr Mottaki.
	Photo by: (AP)