ElBaradei asks Iran for quick response on nukes

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The head of the U.N. nuclear agency has urged Iran to clarify its response to a proposal that would have Tehran ship most of its nuclear material abroad for processing.

Addressing the U.N. General Assembly on Monday, Mohamed ElBaradei said "a number of questions and allegations relevant to the nature" of Iran's program remained, and he called for confidence building measures on all sides.

The U.S. and other powers are concerned Iran may be enriching uranium for use in nuclear weapons, while Tehran insists its program is strictly for peaceful purposes.

Iranian officials have been sending mixed signals over the plan proposed under talks brokered by the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency, which ElBaredei headed until stepping down Monday.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

VIENNA (AP) - Iranian officials sent mixed signals on a plan that would have Tehran ship out most of the material it would need to make a nuclear weapon, with the foreign minister saying Monday that option still exists and a senior diplomat suggesting the opposite.

The contrasting messages appear designed to keep the international community off balance on how far Iran is ready to go in accepting the original proposal - having Tehran export 70 percent of its enriched uranium and having it returned as fuel for its research reactor.

They also appeared geared toward pushing the plan's main backers - the U.S., France and Russia - into further talks, something those nations oppose as a delaying tactic.

Iran insists it is interested only in enriching uranium for use in a future network of nuclear reactors. But has amassed more than 3,300 pounds (1.500 kilograms) of low-enriched uranium - more than enough to arm a nuclear warhead.

The United States and other nations fear Tehran is trying to turn its low-enriched material into fissile, weapons-grade uranium.

Asked about U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's comments that Western powers are getting impatient with Iran over the nuclear deal, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki replied: "Really?"

Mottaki, who spoke to reporters in Kuala Lumpur, simply replied "No," when asked if his country had rejected the plan that would commit his country to ship out most of its enriched uranium.

Instead, he said Iran has three options to procure fuel for its reactor; to buy the fuel from other countries; to enrich the uranium domestically, or to accept the U.N.-brokered plan.

In contrast, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's chief envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency, said Iran wanted to purchase ready-made uranium from abroad for the research reactor.

"We want to buy the fuel from any supplier," he told The Associated Press, fending off repeated questions on whether this meant the rejection of the export plan.

Soltanieh's comments were the most concrete statement yet by a government official of what the Iranian government wanted.

But the U.S. and its allies are unlikely to accept anything substantially less than the original plan, which aimed to delay Iran's ability of making nuclear weapons by at least a year by divesting Iran of most of its enriched uranium and returning it as research reactor fuel.

"We are waiting for Iran to accept formally the agreement," French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Monday. "We are waiting for this answer. If this answer is dilatory as it seems to be, we won't accept it."

If 70 percent of Iran's uranium is exported in one shipment - or at the most two shipments in quick succession - Tehran would need about a year to produce enough uranium to again have the stockpile it needs for one weapon.

"We have considered these proposals," Mottaki said of the IAEA plan. "We have some technical and economic considerations on that. Two days ago, we passed our views and observations to the IAEA, so it is very much possible to establish a technical commission in order to review and reconsider all these issues."

Asked when the panel would meet, he said that was up to the IAEA. He refused to elaborate.

It is relatively simple to turn fuel-grade uranium into weapons-grade material.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government says it is not interested in nuclear arms, but it will take decades before any Iranian nuclear network is in place, meaning Iran has no immediate use for the enriched uranium it has accumulated.

The go-slow tactics adopted by Iran on this deal follow its traditional strategy of dealing with the West - negotiation offers, followed by talks that end inconsequentially but manage to stave off harsh retaliation.

Since restarting uranium enrichment three years ago, Iran has repeatedly said it is ready to negotiate with the international community, while insisting that it will not give up the program despite three sets of U.N. Security Council sanctions.

It has successfully played off Russia and China against the three Western permanent Security Council members - the U.S., Britain and France - in fending off harsher U.N. sanctions.

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Associated Press writers Ellen Ng in Kuala Lumpur and Deborah Seward in Paris contributed to this report.