Thursday, March 30 2006 19:54 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Geneva: Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki today (Mar 30, 2006) formally offered to set up a 'regional consortium' to enrich fuel for the Islamic republic's controversial nuclear programme.

Mottaki's statement at the UN Conference on Disarmament came hours after the UN Security Council in New York unanimously voted to give Iran 30 days to fall into line with long-running calls to abandon its uranium enrichment activities.

Referring to a previous Iranian suggestion on the "involvement of foreign companies in the Iranian fuel cycle programme" inside Iran, Mottaki said: "One possibility to resolve the issue could be the establishment of a regional consortium on fuel cycle development."

Mottaki's statement implied that the consortium would be based in Iran.

He told the permanent conference the centre could involve "regional countries which have already developed fuel cycle programmes at the national level and intend to develop further their programme for civilian purposes."

"Countries outside the region may also participate in such regional arrangements based on the modalities agreed between the parties," he added.

He did not name any countries or add details.

In recent days Iranian diplomats have indicated that Tehran was offering to set up an international consortium on its territory to deal with enrichment, in an attempt to ward off suspicions about its nuclear intentions.

Iranian nuclear fuel in Russia

Russia has called for a clear Iranian response to its offer to enrich Iranian nuclear fuel in Russia in a bid to defuse the standoff.

Mottaki slammed the process that brought Iran's case to the Security Council but did not respond directly to yesterday's declaration from the UN.

"I announce in no uncertain terms that reporting Iran's file to the Security Council is in our view an abuse of international mechanism, and is misguided, legally unwarranted and clearly unacceptable to Iran."

"This can only be a disservice to law based conduct of international relations and is a concerted attempt to escalate the situation for short sighted political agenda of certain powerful states."

In his wide ranging speech, Mottaki gave overt support to efforts to seek overall nuclear disarmament on a 'multilateral' basis and insisted on Iran's rights to develop nuclear energy under the Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

"Iran's nuclear programme is peaceful and has never diverted towards prohibited activities," he said, claiming it had withstood the test of inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

"The fact that during all these years of research there has been no diversion of nuclear materials towards prohibited activities is by itself a proof of Iran's peaceful intentions," he added.

The United Nations Security Council's five veto-wielding permanent members (P-5) - Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States - plus Germany, were meeting in Berlin today to discuss the standoff.