LJUBLJANA, Dec 5: Iran’s insistence on enriching uranium on its own soil amounts to a ‘unilateral’ rejection of a Russian proposal to resolve a nuclear standoff with the West, French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said on Monday. Douste-Blazy is the first senior European minister to publicly express dismay at the negotiating stance of the Iranians, ahead of fresh talks expected later this month.

Iran has said its nuclear programme will enrich uranium only to a level suitable for civilian atomic-power reactors, but the United States and European Union fear Tehran will use the same technology to make bomb-grade material.

To minimize that possibility, Moscow proposes taking in Iranian uranium for enrichment and then returning it to Iran. But Tehran has said it will only accept proposals that allow it to conduct a full nuclear fuel cycle at home.

“The Russians have made a proposal to Iran for the possibility of a joint venture for enriching nuclear material for Iran. But the Iranians, in a way, have unilaterally refused this,” Douste-Blazy told reporters during an Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) meeting in Slovenia.

“The Europeans wish to give time to negotiations so as to show the Iranians that what we precisely want is to achieve something through negotiations,” he said. “We are not trying to humiliate them. But so far Iran has said ‘no’ to everything.”

Tehran rejects suspicions that it is bent on making atomic bombs. It says its nuclear project aims solely to generate electricity.

DIFFERENCES OVER AGENDA: Talks between Iran and the EU trio of Britain, Germany and France spearheading diplomatic efforts to defuse the crisis are to resume within weeks, diplomats say, but differences over the agenda appear to be holding things up.