Ahmadinejad softens tone in remarks about US spy report

Tehran: In his first formal news conference since an American intelligence report last week undercut claims that Iran was secretly developing nuclear weapons, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad struck an unusually mild tone Tuesday, calling for dialogue with the United States and foregoing his usual anti-American and anti-Israeli rhetoric.

He also denied that Iran had resumed a secret nuclear weapons programme, a claim made by an Iranian exile group, the Mujahideen-e-Khalq.

A US National Intelligence Estimate, or NIE, released last week concluded Iran halted its weapons programme in 2003.

Ahmadinejad initially gloated over the report as vindication for Iran, although it said his country continues to enrich uranium and that Iran easily could restart its weapons programme.

But at Tuesday's two-hour news conference, Ahmadinejad described the report as "a positive and forward step" by the United States to ease tensions in the Middle East.

"We do hope there will be one or two steps forward so as to make a different atmosphere for finding solutions," he told reporters. "If further steps are taken, then our problems will be less complicated."

Olive branch

Many officials in Iran viewed NIE as an olive branch, and some analysts have urged the Iranian leadership to take the opportunity to enhance ties or at least reopen channels of communication between Iran and the United States.

US and Iranian officials will meet in Baghdad on December 18 for the fourth round of talks over securing Iraq.

Ahmadinejad expressed confidence that the meetings eventually would produce positive results for bolstering security in Iraq.