LONDON, Sept 16: Iran will propose a series of international joint ventures in its nuclear programme in a bid to calm fears that Tehran wants to use the technology to build weapons, a British newspaper said on Friday.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is set to unveil the plan in New York on Saturday amid a standoff with Europe and the United States.

A senior Iranian official told the Financial Times: “Iran will suggest international cooperation for uranium enrichment and invite Europe, Russia, China and South Africa to joint ventures in which Iran keeps its nuclear fuel cycle while the international community can make sure there is no diversion.”

The official has been involved in two years of talks with the European Union on the nuclear dilemma, the newspaper said.

“The cooperation is not necessarily for new (nuclear) sites — it can be in the sites we already have,” Ali Agha-Mohammadi, a spokesman for the Supreme National Security Council, told the economic daily.

The FT noted, however, that it was unclear whether the scheme would include more sensitive sites in Iran and said European diplomats were sceptical that their governments would accept it.

Nicholas Burns, the US undersecretary of state, also reiterated Washington’s stance that Tehran should be prevented from developing a nuclear fuel cycle capacity.

The report came after three European powers — the so-called EU-3 — held lengthy discussions with Iran on the sidelines of a UN summit in New York to try to head off a showdown.

Foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany met their Iranian counterpart and later conferred with the new president in a diplomatic push brokered by the UN chief.—AFP