VIENNA, Nov 10: Iran and the European Union's "big three" states are deadlocked over whether Iran should be allowed to continue processing uranium if it freezes its uranium enrichment programme, diplomats said on Wednesday.

France, Britain and Germany have been negotiating with Iran for over a year to try to persuade the Islamic republic to abandon its nuclear fuel production plans. Over the weekend, diplomats from the four parties reached a tentative deal, though they have not been able to agree on its scope.

Several Western diplomats said Iran told France, Britain and Germany it wanted to continue converting raw uranium into uranium tetrafluoride (UF4), a precursor to uranium hexafluoride (UF6), the form of uranium that is fed into centrifuges to enrich it for use as fuel in power plants or weapons.

"Iran wants to continue making UF4 but the Europeans are opposed to this," a diplomat said of the talks between the EU three's capitals and Tehran. "Neither side wants to back down."

The suspension was demanded by the International Atomic Energy Agency's board of governors in September which ordered Tehran to freeze its entire enrichment programme, including "the production of feed material".

The Iranians say the UF4 does not count as "feed material" and that they should be allowed to keep making it. The Europeans, on the other hand, say UF4 is essential to producing UF6 and should therefore not be manufactured.

"The Iranians say they will comply with the resolution. The European demand goes beyond the IAEA resolution," a diplomat close to the IAEA said. However, a diplomat on the board of governors said this was an overly narrow interpretation of the term "feed material" and was incorrect.

THREAT TO QUIT NPT: "If they start to pressure or threaten us, then we will put aside the treaty and go underground," the semi-official Mehr news agency quoted Iranian negotiator Sirus Naseri as saying.