West gives Iran breather in nuclear row: Rice

NEW YORK (AFP) - The United States, facing stubborn opposition to sanctions against Iran, gave its European allies "a couple of weeks" to draft new incentives for Tehran to halt its controversial nuclear program.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made the announcement after two days of intensive consultations by the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany that ended with no consensus on tough UN action.

"We agreed that we will continue to seek a Security Council resolution, but that we would wait for a couple of weeks while the Europeans design an offer to the Iranians that would make clear that they have a choice that would allow them to have a civil nuclear program," Rice told ABC television.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday brushed off the threat of war against his nation as a "joke" and said Iranians would welcome sanctions over their disputed nuclear program.

Ahmadinejad, beginning the second day of his visit to Indonesia, told the country's Metro TV that military action against Iran would hurt the nations launching hostilities more than Tehran.

"First of all, actually, the idea of going to war is a joke, it's like a joke. Why should there be a war? Can the voice of a nation be violated so simply? We want to exercise our legal rights," he said in an interview.

The United States has refused to exclude possible military action against Iran over its nuclear enrichment activities, which Tehran insists is peaceful but Western nations fear may be a cover for developing an atomic bomb.

"This is just propaganda and psychological warfare against our country. We also possess the technical and other capabilities to defend our interests," the firebrand leader warned.

"They do know that any mistreatment of the Iranian people will actually cause more losses to them than for us. They need us more than we do actually need them. This is just rhetoric."

Ahmadinejad, who is on a five-day visit to Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, also said that Iranians would rise to the challenge of sanctions if they were imposed.

"Many of our scientists and experts will be more than happy to hear that we are put under sanctions by the West because this will motivate a great leap in our industrial and economic progress," he said.

Washington has pushed for sanctions to punish Iran for its suspected efforts to develop nuclear weapons, but has been stymied by resistance by Russia and China, which hold veto rights in the UN Security Council.

Diplomats said negotiators from the Council's five permanent members plus Germany would meet in London on May 19 to consider new incentives as well as sanctions if Iran does not halt suspected efforts to build a nuclear bomb.

A Western envoy in Vienna said they hoped to finalize the package within 10 days for presentation to Iran by Britain, France and Germany, the so-called EU-3 which have taken the lead in negotiations with Tehran.

But Rice said Washington was not abandoning efforts to seek a forceful response to Iran's rejection of a Security Council injunction to stop its uranium enrichment activities.

"We are all in agreement that the Security Council has got to send a very strong message to Iran that it can't continue to defy the international community. And that's what we're going to do," Rice said.

"And we felt that waiting a couple of weeks is the way to allow diplomatic options to be fully pursued."

She told NBC television the EU-3 would present Tehran with two options: "Iran can either defy the international community and face isolation and UN Security Council action; or Iran can accept a path to a civil nuclear program that is acceptable to the international community."

Rice did not discuss the content of the proposals but said the bottom line was that Iran could not have access to technologies to make a bomb. "That means that enrichment and reprocessing on their territory can't be permitted."

French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said early Tuesday the carrots included civilian nuclear energy cooperation, trade and technological exchanges "and, why not, in the area of security." Washington has refused to give Iran security guarantees.

Rice held talks Monday night with her counterparts from the other four permanent Security Council members plus Germany and the European Union.

Their political directors followed up Tuesday with no consensus in sight on a US push for a resolution under chapter seven of the UN charter, which could authorize sanctions or military force against Iran.

Iran, which insists its nuclear program is peaceful, spurned earlier efforts by the EU-3 to wean it off its alleged weapons ambitions with economic and other incentives.

It has also waffled at a proposal by Moscow to enrich uranium for the Iranians on Russian soil.

Tehran this week made an apparent attempt to open a direct dialogue with Washington in a letter from its hardline leader to President George W. Bush.

But Rice again dismissed the letter as falling short of a serious attempt to address issues between Iran and the West.

"It really doesn't offer a solution to the nuclear impasse," she told ABC. "It doesn't talk about Iran's role in terrorism around the world. And there really isn't anything there to consider it a diplomatic overture."