Iran Rules Out Halt to Enrichment

Iran set the scene for confrontation with the UN security council yesterday by declaring it would reject demands to suspend uranium enrichment as the price of an agreement over its nuclear programme.

The announcement pre-empted tomorrow's anticipated formal Iranian response to an international incentive package and appeared to dash hopes of a deal.

The package, put together by the security council's five permanent members - the US, Britain, France, Russia and China - plus Germany, promised civilian nuclear technology in return for suspending uranium enrichment, a process that can be used for producing atomic bombs.

"We are not going to suspend enrichment. The issue was that everything should come out of negotiations, but suspension of uranium enrichment is not on our agenda," said an Iranian foreign ministry spokesman, Hamid Reza Asefi.

A security council resolution passed last month gives Iran until August 31 to suspend enrichment or face the prospect of embargoes.

However, Mr Asefi said the world's fourth-largest crude producer, which is currently reaping the benefit of high oil prices, was prepared for "all possibilities. If Europe imposes sanctions, it will destroy the bridges behind it and will deprive itself of work in the future."