Iran again rejects deadline for reply to N-offer

"In our meeting with Mr Solana, we did not agree on any deadline to respond to the West's proposals. On the contrary, we agreed to examine the proposals with precision and patience," Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki was quoted as saying from Geneva where he was attending a UN human rights meeting.

"In our meeting with Mr Solana, the Islamic Republic of Iran said it will not accept any preconditions, nor will it come forward with any preconditions," Mottaki added.

"However, if there were supposed to be any preconditions, it is the Islamic Republic of Iran that should be coming forward with them," he said.

The five permanent UN Security Council members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- plus Germany have offered Iran a package of incentives that includes multilateral talks if it agrees to temporarily halt uranium enrichment.

That work is at the center of fears the hardline regime could acquire nuclear weapons, although Tehran insists the project aims only to provide fuel for nuclear energy.

Diplomats have said Iran was asked to reply by June 29 to the offer, but Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Wednesday Tehran would take until August 22 to answer.

On Friday, Javad Vaidi, deputy secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, told AFP that suspending uranium enrichment will be neither a precondition for talks with world powers on its nuclear activities nor an outcome of those discussions.

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