Although Khamenei said Iran was ready to ease international concerns over its disputed atomic drive, he said "negotiations with the United States are of no use for us. We have no need for such negotiations."

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei smiles during meeting with Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade in Tehran. Khamenei said today he saw "no use" in negotiating with the United States and again signalled that Tehran was unwilling to freeze sensitive nuclear work. [AFP]

"We will not negotiate with anyone over the undeniable right of nuclear technology and using it," he added, indicating Tehran will refuse to bow to international demands to suspend uranium enrichment.

The US administration said it did not view the comments as Iran's final word on the issue and would wait for a formal response to an offer from Washington and other world powers.

On June 6, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana presented Iran with an offer -- backed by Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States -- of multilateral talks and a variety of incentives.

The offer -- which would pave the way for the first substantive contacts between Iran and the United States in decades -- is conditional on Iran first agreeing to suspend enrichment work, the focus of suspicions that the Islamic regime wishes to acquire nuclear weapons.

But Iran appears to still reject the key condition and continues to call for negotiations without any "preconditions".

"If they recognise this right, we are ready to negotiate over supervision controls," Khamenei said of Iran's nuclear programme, which the regime insists is merely aimed at generating electricity.

In Washington, the White House played down Khamenei's comments and said Iran's position remained unclear.

Asked whether Iranian leaders were signalling that they would ignore a US call for a formal response to the proposal in "weeks, not months," Snow replied: "Well, no they're not."

"Keep in mind that there are differences between public and private statements," he told reporters, adding that "there have been conversations" between Iran and Britain, France and Germany, "and we expect the Iranians to provide a proper answer within the span of weeks and not months."

Page:

1

2