Ahmadinejad: Iran ready to make uranium exchange deal

Ahmadinejad said in an interview with state television that, after renewed talks with world powers, Iran was ready to exchange its low- enriched uranium for a more highly processed version to be used as fuel in the Tehran nuclear reactor.

He said a contract would be signed to guarantee that the deal would be properly and fully implemented.

Ahmadinejad said that there have been some new developments after positive talks held recently with some of the countries involved in the negotiations.

He did not name the countries but observers believe those would have been Russia and China. Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki also met last week in Davos with an unnamed adviser of French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

The Iranian president said that there were also agreements on exchanging the uranium on Iranian soil, but that Iran could also send its low-enriched uranium (LEU) abroad for further processing.

"We have no opposition to sending our LEU abroad, as we want to have constructive cooperation and as we can at any time produce the LEU again inside Iran," Ahmadinejad said.

"There will be a contract for calming down the concerns at home and for guaranteeing that the deal will be properly and fully implemented," he added.

The president said, for technical reasons, Iran could not exchange the uranium in three different phases.

According to a plan brokered in October by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iran's LEU was to be exported to Russia for further enrichment, and then to France for processing into fuel for a Tehran reactor.

At the time, Tehran said it was prepared either to buy the more highly enriched uranium outright, or exchange its own for more highly enriched uranium if the swap took place on Iranian soil.

The alternative would be for Iran to process its own uranium, he said. This is the scenario that the international community is seeking to avoid.

The world powers and the IAEA had also refused to have the handover take place in Iran.

Iran insists it has the right to pursue peaceful nuclear development as a signatory of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and an IAEA member and rejects Western charges that it has been working on a secret programme to make an atomic bomb.

However, its lack of transparency regarding its nuclear programme and refusal to suspend uranium enrichment have led to several United Nations Security Council resolutions imposing sanctions against the Islamic state.

/dpa/