UN atomic chief says no new Iranian proposal

UN atomic agency chief Yukiya Amano said Saturday that Iran's foreign minister made no new proposals to him on a possible nuclear fuel deal during a meeting in Germany.

"There was not a new proposal. We exchanged views," Amano told reporters after meeting Manouchehr Mottaki on the sidelines of a security forum in Munich. "I didn't receive the counter-proposal."

Asked if he was confident of a breakthrough on a deal, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) head said: "I am not providing my perspective. Dialogue is continuing and should be accelerated, that is the point."

"Our meeting covered a variety of areas. That included of course in Iran and the Tehran research reactor. We had a very interesting discussion, and on my part I can currently say that dialogue is continuing and should be accelerated."

Tehran appeared to reject last October a deal proposed by the IAEA for Iran to export low-enriched uranium (LEU) to France and Russia to be further purified into fuel for a research reactor in Tehran.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad suddenly said on Tuesday however that he would have "no problem" sending some LEU abroad, although he gave no details on how a possible deal might look.

But U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he saw no sign a deal was close between Iran and Western powers on exchanging some of its low-enriched uranium (LEU) for higher-grade fuel, suggesting it was time to move forward with sanctions.

"I don't have the sense that we're close to an agreement," Gates told reporters in Ankara where he met Turkish leaders.

There was not a new proposal. We exchanged views.I didn't receive the counter proposal

UN atomic agency chief Yukiya Amano

"If they are prepared to take up the original proposal of the P-5 plus one of delivering 12,000 kilograms of their low enriched uranium, all at once to an agreed party, I think there would be a response to that," he added, referring to the five permanent U.N. Security Council members plus Germany.

Gates said President Obama had taken unprecedented steps to engage with Iran, describing the response so far as "disappointing".

"But the reality is they have done nothing to reassure the international community that they are prepared to comply with the NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty) or stop their progress towards a nuclear weapon, and therefore I think various nations need to think about whether the time has come for a different tack," Gates added, in an apparent reference to sanctions.

"The P5 plus one has always had a dual track approach -- that engagement would be tried first, and if that didn't work, then pressure would be applied. The purpose of the pressure would be to bring Iran back to the negotiating table to negotiate seriously about constraining this program," he added.

But the reality is they have done nothing to reassure the international community that they are prepared to comply with the NPT

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates