WASHINGTON, June 5: The White House on Monday pleaded for patience with overtures to Iran, saying ‘there is hope’ that Tehran will accept an internationally brokered compromise on its nuclear programmes.

“I would counsel patience,” spokesman Tony Snow told reporters.

“At this point, as we’ve said all along, let’s give it time. Let’s let the Iranians take a look at what the offers are, at the incentives and disincentives.”

The United States charges that Iran is using its nuclear programme to hide a quest for atomic weapons. Tehran denies the accusation.

Snow said that the package crafted by the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany has yet to be formally presented to Tehran, and he again discounted early Iranian rejections of a call to freeze sensitive nuclear activities.

With European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana due to present the offer in Tehran, Snow said, “There’s neither optimism nor pessimism; there is hope” that Iranian leaders will accept.

“The condition for getting to the negotiating table is to suspend enrichment-related and reprocessing activities. That’s the first step. Should that happen, then the whole series of other things can take place,” he said.

“What’s going to happen is that the Iranians are going to have to determine for themselves how seriously they want to take the proposition from the EU-3 (Britain, France and Germany) and the United States,” he said.—AFP