GENEVA, Feb 11: European Union negotiators offered to send a mission to help Iran obtain a nuclear light-water research reactor , in what would be the first concrete move towards rewarding Tehran for abandoning uranium enrichment, diplomats said as four days of EU-Iranian talks ended on Friday.

The trio of Britain, France and Germany, representing the European Union, is trying to convince Iran to dismantle an enrichment program that the United States says is part of secret nuclear weapons development.

In return, Iran would get economic and political rewards. The United States is warily watching the talks, which began in December in Brussels and are to continue next month, apparently in Geneva.

Washington backs the diplomacy but has not ruled out military action against Tehran. In Geneva, the European trio and Iran discussed having the trio send a mission to help Iran get a light-water research reactor that would be less of a proliferation risk than a heavy-water reactor the Iranians want to build, a diplomat close to the talks said.

Heavy-water reactors use natural uranium and can produce significant amounts of plutonium, a prime nuclear weapons material. The European trio had proposed a mission on the light-water reactor at previous talks in Geneva last month, but the Iranians had not responded, said the diplomat.

Non-proliferation expert Gary Samore, of London's International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), said the Europeans wanted to send the mission "to demonstrate that progress is being made".

But the Iranians are delaying since they fear "setting a precedent of European support with peaceful nuclear technology in exchange for Iran agreeing to abandon its indigenous program", said Mr Samore, who served as a government adviser on non-proliferation issues to former US president Bill Clinton.

A second diplomat said that this week's meeting should be seen as part of "a process", with another session at the experts level next month and then later in the month a more senior "steering committee meeting" to give a first overview of progress.

The talks were the third round since Iran agreed with the EU in November to suspend uranium enrichment, the key process in making what can be nuclear fuel but also the explosive core of atomic bombs, in return for negotiations on giving benefits that could range from a reactor to entry into the World Trade Organization. -AFP