TEHRAN - Iran is prepared to keep its controversial uranium enrichment programme suspended for several months, provided negotiations with the European Union make progress, chief negotiator Hossein Moussavian said Wednesday.
"This is not a problem of days or months," Moussavian told AFP. "What's important is to reach a basic agreement which guarantees that negotiations can be successful."
If such an agreement is reached, "negotiations can continue for several months."
Tehran agreed in November to suspend its enrichment activities as a goodwill gesture for a maximum of six months, but the Europeans want the suspension to become permanent, a demand the Iranians have termed "absurd".
Iran says it has the right to enrich uranium to low levels to produce atomic fuel for civilian power stations, but highly enriched uranium can provide the core for an atomic bomb.
The European Union is currently considering, ahead of another meeting on April 19, a proposal by Tehran to allow it to produce low-level enriched uranium on a small scale.
If the two sides then reach agreement, "I am 50-percent optimistic about the possibility of reaching a (final) agreement," said Moussavian, repeating however that "if there is a blockage, Iran will resume enrichment."
"We are involved in negotiations and as long as we are, suspension continues."
However, Moussavian repeated Iran's refusal to renounce efforts to master the uranium enrichment cycle as sought by the three European nations of Britain, France and Germany involved in negotiations.
"We must master the enrichment and production cycle of nuclear fuel," he said.
Moussavian said that progress made in nuclear, political and commercial talks since December was "minimal", referring to European offers of trade, technology and security benefits in return for a complete suspension.
He categorically denied a report that Iran had offered to limit its enrichment activities to a small number of the centrifuges used in the process and rejected a proposal from the International Atomic Energy Agency for a moratorium on fuel production.
Moussavian said that "the problem is not limited to the nuclear... all bilateral, regional and international obstacles in Iran-EU relations must be overcome and we must move towards a partnership."
He said the question of possible US involvement in negotiations was "the Europeans' problem" after a prominent Iranian MP challenged Washington to join in talks.
Washington supports the EU initiative, but says a failure would mean bringing Iran before the UN Security Council with a view to applying sanctions. The US administration has also not ruled out the use of force.
Meanwhile, the vice president of Iran's atomic energy programme, Mohammad Saidi, said that "some of our experts are continuing their research, without physically carrying out operations" relative to enrichment.
04/06/2005 11:50 GMT