Tehran calls for talks free from 'threats'

Vienna: Iran urged world powers on Thursday to take up its call for talks without preconditions on its nuclear activity and condemned UN Security Council intervention as based on "ridiculous ... political motivations".

Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), spoke to IAEA's 35-country governing board after Washington accused Tehran of "aggressively" seeking atomic bombs under the guise of a civilian nuclear fuel project.

Diplomats said Iran tentatively offered to consider halting enrichment of uranium in talks with the European Union last weekend aimed at finding a basis for negotiations on an offer of trade incentives to Tehran to drop its programme.

But the United States called during IAEA board debate on Wednesday for swift drafting of punitive sanctions against Iran in the Security Council this month.

Soltanieh told the board Iran was genuinely interested in a negotiated solution but Washington was trying to undermine the atmosphere for good-faith talks.

"If there is a political will on the other side, [our] response would be the basis on which one could pave the way for an immediate solution through dialogue and negotiation ... free from any threat, pressure or any precondition," he said.

Soltanieh called on the Security Council to return Iran's nuclear dossier to IAEA and urged six world powers to "commence negotiations without any preconditions or further delay".

He accused the United States of trying to poison the "positive environment" for talks between Iran negotiator Ali Larijani and EU's Javier Solana with "baseless allegations" of an Iranian bomb bid.