WASHINGTON - The United States on Tuesday renewed its call that Iran abandon its uranimum enrichment program after Tehran reserved the right to pursue such activities despite fears it was working on a nuclear bomb.
"There is no reason for them to have an enrichment and reprocessing program," said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher.
"We know how it's been used in the past. And the only way to ... reassure the world that they're not going to be a nuclear threat is to eliminate those programs," he said.
Boucher spoke after Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi said his country was bent on carrying out uranium enrichment, which Washington fears is part of a nuclear arms program.
The Islamic republic denies seeking atomic weapons. But Kharazi told a UN conference on non-proliferation Tuesday that "Iran for its part is determined to pursue all legal areas of nuclear technology."
Iran had agreed to suspend enrichment as part of negotiations with Germany, France and Britain, which hope to wean Tehran off any nuclear arms ambitions with economic and security incentives.
The United States is backing the effort, but both US and European officials have signaled their impatience with the slow pace of talks. The US envoy to the UN conference took a hard line toward Iran on Monday.
Stephen Rademaker called for "permanent cessation of Iran's enrchment and reprocessing efforts as well as dismantlement of equipment and facilities related to such activities."
Rademaker, assistant secretary of state for arms control, also said states not complying with nuclear safeguards provided in the Non-Proliferation Treaty should be deprived of help in developing peaceful atomic technology.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has signaled that Washington was willing to give the European talks with Iran until the summer before starting to look around for other options in dealing with Tehran.
05/03/2005 18:17 GMT