Iran Expected to Reject Nuclear Deal

Iran is to today give its reply to international proposals to suspend uranium enrichment, but hopes of a deal to limit its nuclear programme are expected to be dashed.

The country's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei yesterday vowed never to give up nuclear technology and claimed that western negotiators were trying to hold back his country.

"Though they well know that Iran does not want to produce nuclear arms, they are exerting maximum pressure to stop progress of an Islamic state.

"Iran has taken its own decision," he said. "By relying upon God it will proceed with its nuclear programme to produce nuclear energy."

Iran announced in April that it had succeeded in enriching uranium, a process necessary to produce fuel for nuclear power stations that can also be used to make material for nuclear bombs.

Tehran insists that the programme is only for peaceful uses, but western governments suspect that Iran is working on a weapons programme that could produce an atomic bomb.

The Iranian government has rejected calls from the UN International Atomic Energy Agency to halt its enrichment activities as a confidence-building measure.

In South Africa yesterday, Iranian foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki said that his government was prepared to return to talks but insisted there would be no pause in enrichment.

"Iran's inalienable right to access nuclear technologies for peaceful purposes has been provided by its membership in the nuclear non-proliferation treaty," he said.

The comments were echoed by his South African counterpart Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who urged a peaceful solution to the situation. South Africa built half-a-dozen nuclear devices before it abandoned its apartheid-era nuclear programme in the early 1990s.

On Sunday, UN secretary general Kofi Annan called on the Iranian government to "seize this historic opportunity".

"I believe that progress on the nuclear issue is essential for the stability not only of the region, but the international system itself. It is time to take steps in the right direction," he said.

Iran's reply today will assess its response to proposals offered by the six-nation coalition of negotiators, consisting of the five UN security council members Russia, China, the US, France and Britain, plus Germany.

In June, the group offered Tehran a package of incentives designed to persuade it to give up its enrichment activities. The measures are understood to include economic incentives, technological help and a possible green light for limited, monitored enrichment activities.

Iran shows little will to change direction and yesterday reportedly barred IAEA inspectors from its enrichment plant in Natanz.

The IAEA has previously been allowed access to the 164 uranium-enriching centrifuges at the site, but diplomats fear more may have been built to speed Iran's acquisition of the highly enriched uranium needed for nuclear weapons.

Tehran's tepid response to the incentives package prompted a marked sharpening of the negotiators' position on the issue last month. The UN security council passed a resolution ordering that the regime give up enrichment activities by the end of this month or face sanctions.

The US president, George Bush, yesterday said that the recent war in Lebanon, which pitted US ally Israel against Hizbullah fighters funded and trained by the Iranian government, made the search for a solution more urgent.

"Iran is obviously part of the problem. They sponsor Hizbullah. They encourage a radical brand of Islam. Imagine how difficult this issue would be if Iran had a nuclear weapon," he said.