by Michael Adler
GENEVA - EU-Iran nuclear talks ended Friday in Geneva apparently still deadlocked over Europe`s demand that Tehran give up uranium enrichment, a fuel process which can also make atom bombs, diplomats said.
"The talks were not easy," a European diplomat said in Geneva, while an Iranian diplomat here described the negotiations as "very intense" and said the participants were "exhausted."
"Even if there are differences, there was no question of breaking off the talks. Discussion was frank but constructive," the European diplomat said.
In Brussels, foreign ministers from Britain, France and Germany, which are negotiating for the European Union, warned in a report that the Geneva talks were making slower progress than hoped.
The European trio said they expected "at least preliminary results ... in the period ahead" but that if an agreement failed to take shape, Europe would eventually back a US call for Iran to be referred to the UN Security Council, which could impose economic sanctions or tougher measures.
Britain, France and Germany want Iran to abandon enrichment as an "objective guarantee" that it is not developing nuclear weapons, as the United States charges, and are offering in return trade, security and technology rewards.
The talks, which began Tuesday in Geneva, were the most recent round in negotiations that began in December, a month after Iran agreed to a temporary suspension of enrichment to back up its claim that its atomic program is strictly peaceful.
A new round, the fifth since December, is to be held later this month, possibly in Berlin, London or Paris, a senior European diplomat said.
The diplomat said much of the discussion this week was to prepare the next meeting, which will move from the expert to a more political "steeering committee" level designed to review progress since December.
The givens of the talks changed radically this week, with the United States agreeing to back Europe by helping Iran get incentives if it cooperates, according to press reports Friday.
"We`re in support of what the Europeans are doing, but we had to find a way to demonstrate it," a senior American official told The New York Times.
The Times said the US incentives -- support for Iran`s entry into the World Trade Organization and selling Iran spare parts for its ageing commercial airliners -- would go into effect only if Iran agreed to permanently halt uranium enrichment at its nuclear plants.
On Thursday, Iran`s top national security official Hassan Rowhani described the talks as "successful" despite the reported deadlock, the official Iranian news agency IRNA said.
A European diplomat told AFP that Britain, France and Germany "were content to have the negotiating process drag on.
"As long as we`re talking, the Iranians are suspending their fuel cycle activities and that is good," the diplomat said.
03/11/2005 16:36 GMT