No deadline set for Iran, says Russia

Washington: Russia's UN ambassador said Moscow had not set a deadline for Iran to respond to the six powers' offer to refrain from more UN penalties if Iran freezes expansion of its nuclear work.

Iran gave a non-committal reply on Tuesday, and has promised a "clear response" at an unspecified date.

Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told reporters that dialogue continued, and Russia, China, the United States, France, Germany and Britain would hold talks about Iran's disputed nuclear programme at a ministerial level in September.

Churkin did not comment on a conference call yesterday between officials of the six countries to discuss the next steps.

The call came after Iran gave a noncommittal, one-page letter to major powers on Tuesday in which Tehran gave no firm response to the "freeze for freeze" offer.

"We haven't set any deadlines ourselves for their response and there is ongoing dialogue," Churkin told reporters. "Certainly there is a matter which is going to be discussed ... by the ministers in September."

The letter from Tehran said, "Iran is ready to provide a 'clear response' to your proposal at the earliest possibility, while simultaneously expecting to receive your 'clear response' to our questions and ambiguities as well."

French Foreign Ministry spokesman Romain Nadal agreed, saying Iran had not addressed the most basic issue.

"The question posed is clear and calls for a simple answer: does Iran accept the 'freeze for freeze' offer to launch negotiations? It does not require further clarification," Nadal told reporters in Paris. "We regret that Iran has once again chosen not to answer clearly despite all the efforts the six have made these past weeks to offer a framework for negotiations," he added.

A spokesman for Germany's foreign minister told a news conference it was important for the six powers to stay unified.

"The German government believes it is important to maintain the unity between the EU3 (Germany, France and Britain) plus 3 (United States, China and Russia) and that this unity is an important recipe for the success of our policy towards Iran."