December 15, 2002	Sunday	Shawwal 10, 1423

WASHINGTON, Dec 14: The European Union plans to offer the United States “very firm reassurances” that it will not sign a proposed trade agreement with Iran without progress on human rights and terrorism concerns, an EU aide said on Friday.

Speaking on the condition he not be identified, the EU official said the recently launched trade talks between Tehran and Brussels were one of several items scheduled for discussion at a meeting on Wednesday between US Secretary of State Colin Powell and top EU foreign affairs officials.

The United States has a ban on most trade with Iran, which President George W. Bush has labeled a member of the axis of evil along with North Korea and Iraq.

Senior EU and Iranian officials met in Brussels on Thursday for the first session in what is expected to be a long set of negotiations to craft a trade and cooperation deal.

US officials have urged Brussels not to sign a trade agreement with Iran as long as they provide support for terrorism, behave unreliability on nonproliferation concerns and show no improvement on human rights, the EU aide said.

We can provide very firm reassurances to the US on the that, the official said. We definitely agree there will be no trade and cooperation agreement with Iran ... if we cannot have progress simultaneously on the political side.

The talks between Powell, EU Foreign Policy chief Javier Solana and EU External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten also will focus on areas of cooperation in the war on terrorism, including a possible new extradition agreement.

Other top agenda items are the possibility for war in Iraq and North Korea’s recent admission that it was developing a secret nuclear weapons program, the EU aide said.

EU officials will brief Powell on the outcome of this week’s historic EU summit meeting in Copenhagen, where agreement was reached to add 10 new member states in Eastern Europe.—Reuters