Iran to present nuclear plan in a month

Iran said yesterday it hoped to present within a month a plan to head off EU preparations to refer it to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions, but diplomats interpreted the move as stalling.

Britain, France and Germany, the "EU3", have held two years of talks with Iran to try to persuade it to abandon sensitive atomic work that both the 25-nation bloc and the United States suspect is a preliminary step towards making nuclear arms.

But the talks appear close to collapse after Iran resumed uranium conversion this month, prompting the EU to cancel a meeting set for Wednesday. Frustrated by Iran's refusal to stop such work, the EU is now preparing the road to possible sanctions. Asked whether Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would present his proposal within a month, Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani told reporters: "I hope so".

But diplomats who follow the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Iran appeared to be stalling for time, as the EU3 were likely to push for Iran to be referred to the UN Security Council in less than a month - when the IAEA governing board meets on September 19.

"I think they're stalling," a diplomat from the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) of mainly developing countries said.