VIENNA, March 6: Negotiators from Iran and the European Union meet in Geneva this week for new talks on Tehran's nuclear policy, with Iran flatly refusing to accede to the Europeans' key demand that it abandon uranium enrichment, a fuel process which can also make atom bombs.

Iran's top nuclear official Hassan Rowhani warned on Saturday that his country would never agree to a permanent halt on enriching uranium.

"We cannot have and we will not have negotiations with the Europeans if what they want is an end to uranium enrichment," Rowhani told reporters in Tehran.

EU negotiators Britain, France and Germany are trying to convince Iran to dismantle nuclear fuel work which the United States says is part of a covert atomic weapons development, in return for economic and political rewards. But Iran insists its nuclear programme is purely for civilian energy needs.

Iran agreed with the EU trio in November to suspend uranium enrichment as a "confidence-building measure" to show its nuclear intentions are peaceful, but stressed the halt would be temporary.

The suspension opened the way to talks on trade, technology and security concessions to Iran if it abandons enrichment as an "objective guarantee" that it will not develop nuclear weapons.

A diplomat close to the EU-Iran talks which began in December said that while the language from Iran is hardline, it is no different than what the Iranians have been saying for months.

The diplomat said the Europeans "are waiting to see what it really means," when a fourth round of talks starts in Geneva on Wednesday and Thursday.

Iranian nuclear negotiator Hossein Moussavian was on Sunday quoted by the Iranian news agency IRNA as saying the Europeans had so far "not shown any seriousness" and that Iran doubted "their capacity" to strike a deal.

"Europe has not presented any plan or proposition and has taken no initiative regarding objective guarantees," he said, warning that Iran's suspension of sensitive nuclear fuel work could be in danger.

Non-proliferation experts said however that Iran may yet cut a deal with the EU, although this may not take place before Iranian presidential elections in June.

"I do not think any progress has been made because Iran has not decided yet whether it is prepared to accept limits on its enrichment programme," Gary Samore, from London's International Institute for Strategic Studies, said while in Tehran for a nuclear technology conference.

"In the run-up to the presidential elections, I do not think any of the Iranian officials have any interest in showing any flexibility because they will be strongly criticized for giving away Iran's rights," Samore said.

A conservative is seen as being almost certain of winning the presidency, but it is not clear whether it will be a hardliner - such as former foreign minister Ali Akbar Velayati - or a pragmatist like top cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani or even Rowhani.-AFP