Saturday, March 18 2006 12:20 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

United Nations: The UN Security Council is expected to issue next week a consensus statement urging Iran to suspend uranium enrichment even as Russia and China are still uncomfortable with parts of the Franco-British draft on Tehran's controversial nuclear programme.

As they emerged from the first informal closed-door consultations last evening on International Atomic Energy Agency's report on the issue, western diplomats said a compromise over the statement was possible over the next few days as both sides were showing signs of flexibility. "The response we got from our colleagues today suggests that we are pretty close to where they wanted us to be," UK's UN envoy Emyr Jones Parry told reporters.

"Our wish remains that the Council should act expeditiously on this text and send the clearest possible signal (to Iran) to reinforce the activities of (International Atomic Energy Agency," he said.

French Ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sabliere also said that "We are not very far now from the end of the discussion."

The Council will meet again on the issue on Tuesday, a day after senior foreign policy making officials of the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany hold discussions at the United Nations headquarters on a long-term strategy to meet the suspected Iranian threat. The US will be represented by Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns.

They are also likely to lend their hand at finalizing the text and help reach a consensus. Germany is being associated with the five permanent members' meeting as it isamong the countries holding talks with Tehran.

On the contentious issue of timeframe for IAEA Chief Mohamed ElBaradei to report on Iranian compliance after the statement, the text as drafted by Britan and France with the US backing gives only 14 days, but Russia and China, supported by several non-permanent members of the Council, are demanding longer timeframe with Beijing proposing from 30 to 45 days.

Western diplomats said the Council is flexible on timeframe but did not indicate what would be acceptable to them. However, most agreed that it would be much more than 14 days mentioned in the text.

On the other contentious issue of whom Elbaradei should report to, a middle ground is being found that he reports to both the Council and the IAEA Board simultaneously. Russia backed by China had been insisting that Elbaradei report first to the Board which could transmit it to the Council.

Moscow wants to ensure primacy of IAEA in the matter but diplomats say it fears that should the Council starts discussing it, the next logical step would be US calling for sanctions on Iran. So it wants the matter to remain with IAEA.

But western diplomats argue that the Council should not be barred from discussing any issue just because it had not been discussed elsewhere. After consultations, they indicated that Elbaradei giving the report simultaneously to both would be acceptable to them.

They said they had proposed the Council adopt the statement on Tuesday but Russia and China have asked for time to enable them consult their governments.

The statement expresses 'serous concern' over Iranian plans for enrichment of uranium which can be used for both running civilian nuclear power plants and making nuclearweapons depending on the degree of enrichment. The draft alsourges Iran to suspend uranium enrichment programme.