Iran insists on resuming enrichment, wants nuke deal reconsidered

U.S. wars Iran patience has limits

Europe concerned over procrastination, has no alternative but Iran’s acceptance of IAEA proposal

Israel for preemptive strike against Iran

Egypt welcomes UN resolution to denuke Mideast

Iran wants more talks on how to procure nuclear fuel for a Tehran reactor before giving a final reply to a UN-drafted deal that was initially expected a week ago, the state IRNA news agency says.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN's atomic watchdog, said on Thursday it had received an "initial response" from Iran to the deal, but IRNA said it was not Tehran's definitive "answer" to the plan.

"The Islamic republic only announced its positive view to the negotiation and has said it is ready to have negotiations based on its technical and economic considerations regarding how to procure fuel for the Tehran reactor," IRNA said on Friday, quoting an unnamed informed source.

Amid growing French impatience and US warnings that Washington's patience was also wearing out, IRNA said Tehran's message to the IAEA was "not an answer to the draft agreement."

Iran would state its full position after more negotiations, the state news agency said.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs warned that US President Barack Obama will not wait for ever for a formal reply from Iran to the IAEA-drafted deal.

"The president's time is not unlimited, this was not about talking for the sake of talking, this was about reaching an agreement that just a few weeks ago seemed to be something that the Iranians wanted," Gibbs said.

World powers have been waiting for a response from Tehran for the deal which proposes to ship out Iran's low-enriched uranium (LEU) abroad for converting into fuel for a Tehran reactor.

But IRNA reported that Iran was expected to insist it will give its LEU at the same time it receives the fuel for the Tehran reactor. The agency did not elaborate.

Western powers are backing the plan for the reactor, an internationally supervised facility.

Another plus for the world powers is that the deal would take out Tehran's LEU, which they feel Iran could enrich to higher levels and use to make atomic weapons - a charge the Islamic republic denies.

Iran had been initially due to give its response to the deal by October 23.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday that the United States was still trying to determine the extent of Iran's initial response to the IAEA.

"We are working to determine exactly what they are willing to do, whether this was an initial response that is an end response or whether it's the beginning of getting to where we expect them to end up," she told CNN.

Clinton said Washington was "seeking clarification" on Iran's response and would "let this process play out."

France demanded that Iran immediately make a formal written response.

"We call on Iran to give its formal response without delay. The oral Iranian response to the IAEA proposes changes to the agreement," French foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero told reporters.

Iranian media reported that Tehran was still seeking some changes to the fuel supply proposals.

The plan calls for Iran to export to Russia more than 1,200 kilos of its 3.5 per cent LEU for refining up to 20 per cent to fuel a Tehran reactor that makes medical isotopes.

France would then fashion the material into fuel rods for the reactor.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Saturday called on Iran to fulfill its obligations over its controversial nuclear program, warning the Islamic republic that "patience has limits."

"Our view is that we are willing to work toward creative outcomes like shipping out the low enriched uranium to be reprocessed outside of Iran but we're not going to wait forever," Clinton said in Jerusalem, where she was holding talks with Israeli officials.

"Patience does have finally its limits and it is time for Iran to fulfill its obligations and responsibilities to the international community and accepting this deal would be a good beginning," she said.

Western powers are awaiting a clear response from Tehran over the nuclear fuel deal brokered by UN atomic watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

France has said that under the deal 1,200 kilos of Iranian LEU -- enriched at a facility in Natanz in defiance of three sets of UN sanctions -- would be shipped abroad for further processing and conversion into fuel for a Tehran research reactor.

Western powers back the deal as the reactor is an internationally supervised facility, and the deal aims at removing Tehran's stock of LEU, a major concern in the West which suspects the enriched material could be further refined for use in nuclear weapons.

Israel, the Middle East's sole if undeclared nuclear power and arch-foe of the Islamic republic, has backed the UN deal.

The IAEA has confirmed that Tehran has given an "initial" response to the deal, but late on Friday the state news agency IRNA reported that Iran's response was "not an answer" to the deal and that it wanted more talks.

On Friday, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs warned that US President Barack Obama will not wait for ever for Iran's formal reply.

"The president's time is not unlimited, this was not about talking for the sake of talking, this was about reaching an agreement that just a few weeks ago seemed to be something that the Iranians wanted," he said.

Iranian lawmakers seem increasingly to be opposed to the deal.

European leaders pressed Iran Friday to stick by a deal that would limit its uranium enrichment, voicing "grave concern" over the country's nuclear program.

Western diplomats said this week that Tehran had rejected a plan proposed by International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei at talks involving Iran, the U.S., Russia and France.

The plan calls for Iran to export most of its enriched uranium, offering instead to enrich it to a higher level inside the country under U.N. supervision. Iran missed an initial deadline of last Friday to respond, and instead this week offered to enrich its uranium to a higher level inside the country under U.N. supervision.

EU leaders expressed "grave concern over the development of Iran's nuclear program, and Iran's persistent failure to meet its international obligations," according to a draft statement circulating on the second day of a two-day EU summit in Brussels.

The statement urged Iran to agree to the U.N. atomic watchdog's proposal for supplying nuclear fuel to Tehran's research reactor, saying such an agreement "would contribute to building confidence." A copy of the statement was obtained by The Associated Press.

The Iranians' counteroffer drew criticism in Europe and Israel. "It's the same old tricks," Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, whose country holds told the European Union's rotating presidency, told the AP. "A back-and-forth for further talks."

Israeli Lawmaker Tzahi Hanegbi, chairman of parliament's foreign affairs and defense committee, speaking to Army Radio on Friday, said reports of Iran's resistance to the deal means, "We're back where we started."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking ahead of a meeting on Friday with White House envoy George Mitchell, said the U.N. nuclear agency's uranium proposal was "a positive step" toward keeping Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

The United States and its allies believe Iran is seeking nuclear arms. Tehran says its uranium activities are aimed only at producing atomic energy.

The EU leaders said progress on the nuclear issue "would pave the way for enhanced relations between the EU and Iran ... in the political, economic, security and technical fields." EU leaders also said they deplored continued violations of human rights in Iran, and urged the authorities to release EU citizens and employees of European missions there.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said at the summit Thursday that he was "deeply concerned" about news of the Iranian sentencing of a British Embassy employee, Hossein Rassam.

"I've received very strong support from all my European Union colleagues, who see in this not just an attack on one diplomatic mission but on all the diplomatic missions in Tehran," he said.

A French researcher and French Embassy employee were both charged in a mass trial of those accused of fomenting unrest in post-election protests in Iran in June. Both are freed on bail, though neither can leave Iran pending a verdict.

Israel offered cautious praise on Friday for a U.N.-drafted, U.S.-backed proposal for dealing with Iran's enriched uranium, calling it "a positive first step" toward denying Tehran the means to make nuclear weaponry.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu raised the issue expressly at the start of talks with U.S. President Barack Obama's Middle East envoy George Mitchell, who does not usually deal with Iran, following more skeptical remarks by Israeli defense officials.

"I also wanted to take this opportunity to express my appreciation for the president's ongoing efforts to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear military capability," Netanyahu said at a brief welcome session video-taped by his office.

"I think that the proposal the president made in Geneva, to have Iran withdraw its enriched uranium -- a portion of it -- outside Iran is a positive first step in that direction."

The statement came as Iran, the United States and other world powers disputed the terms for any final settlement.

Netanyahu made no immediate mention of Israel's long-standing demand that any deal with Iran end its domestic uranium enrichment, a process than can yield bomb-grade fuel.

Iran says its atomic ambitions are peaceful, but the secrecy around the program and Tehran's vituperation of the Jewish state have stirred regional war fears.

Israel, assumed to have the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal, has hinted at the possibility of preemptive strikes against Iranian facilities if it deems diplomacy a dead end.