Iran responds to IAEA uranium deal

International Atomic Energy Agency "Director General Mohamed ElBaradei has received an initial response from the Iranian authorities to his proposal to use Iran's low-enriched uranium for manufacturing fuel for the continued operation of the Tehran Research Reactor, which is devoted mainly to producing radioisotopes for medical purposes," the watchdog said in a statement.

"The Director General is engaged in consultations with the government of Iran as well as all relevant parties, with the hope that agreement on his proposal can be reached soon."

Iran will propose two amendments to an UN-drafted deal under which most of Tehran's low-enriched uranium will be sent abroad for conversion into nuclear fuel, a newspaper reported yesterday.

Firstly, Iran will offer its stock of LEU "gradually" in several batches rather than sending out the full 75 percent in one go, the newspaper said quoting an unnamed informed source.

Secondly, Iran wants to receive highly enriched uranium fuel at the same time as it hands over its LEU stock "as per a formula to be calculated by the IAEA based on the need of the Tehran reactor."

Meanwhile, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on yesterday that conditions were now ripe for a deal on Iran's nuclear programme as a result of a change in Western policy from "confrontation to cooperation."

Iranian media said the government was likely to seek some changes to the proposalsfrom the International Atomic Energy Agency and its envoy to the watchdog said he expected to be involved in further negotiations.

But Ahmadinejad insisted that his government, for so long on a collision course with the West over its refusal to heed repeated UN Security Council ultimatums to suspend uranium enrichment, was keen to strike a deal.

"We welcome fuel exchange, nuclear cooperation, building of power plants and reactors and we are ready to cooperate," the president said in a speech in Iran's second city of Mashhad broadcast live on state television.