by Lachlan Carmichael
Agence France Presse, London – World powers gathered here Wednesday to try to agree on a strategy aimed at forcing a defiant Iran to stop enriching uranium as host country Britain stressed it sought to avoid armed conflict.
Senior officials from the five UN Security Council permanent members — Britain, France, China, Russia and the United States — along with Germany were set to discuss a European carrot-and-stick package for Iran.
The closed-door meeting has been called amid an escalating international stand-off over an Iranian nuclear power program which Washington claims hides the development of atomic weapons but which Tehran says is purely civilian.
The talks were due to have started at 11:30 am (1030 GMT) at the Foreign Office in London, but there was no official confirmation they had.
The European Union’s ‘big three’ — Britain, France and Germany — are hoping to coax Iran into suspending uranium enrichment work in exchange for a package of trade and technology incentives.
However, they want Russia and China to join in United Nations sanctions, including an arms embargo, if Iran does not agree, according to a draft proposal seen by AFP.
"Our view, very clearly, is that there is no intention to look for conflict," British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett told reporters before the talks involving the political directors of the six powers’ foreign ministries.
The United States has refused to rule out taking military action if Iran fails to comply with demands by the UN International Atomic Energy Agency to stop enrichment.
She added that Britain, Washington’s closest ally, recognized a need to strike a balance between giving Iran incentives to cooperate with the international community and dealing with "concerns" if Iran fails to comply.
Playing down any chances of a breakthrough, Beckett said: "I think it will be a key meeting today, but I suspect it won’t the final meeting."
Just ahead of the talks, the Financial Times reported from Washington that differences of opinion had emerged within the US administration over strategy that was complicating European diplomatic efforts.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had "gone out on a limb" to back the European package of incentives but had met resistance from Vice President Dick Cheney, the Financial Times newspaper reported.
Cheney is said to be against the idea of "rewarding bad behavior" after Iran allegedly breached its nuclear safeguards commitments, according to the newspaper report based on comments from diplomats and analysts.
The newspaper said some European diplomats think the United States will back their proposals if Russia supports a tough UN resolution that would require Iran to suspend uranium enrichment.
During a tour of Arab Gulf countries Kuwait and Qatar on Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Moscow supports the EU proposal and urged Tehran to cooperate.
A dissident group, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, said it held a rally outside the Foreign Office to push for democratic change in Tehran and demand the imposition of comprehensive sanctions on the regime.
Iran’s hardline government has already rejected the European offer and insisted its uranium enrichment program is not up for negotiation.
In Tehran earlier, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad boasted that the Islamic republic had "mastered the entire nuclear fuel cycle" and that it would give an "historic slap" to any attacker.
Iran says it wants to use the fuel cycle only to make civilian reactor fuel, and argues such work for peaceful purposes is a "right" enshrined by the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
But the same technology can be extended to make atomic weapons, and the United States in particular claims Iran is merely exploiting a loophole in the NPT.
Citing US officials, Iranian analysts and foreign diplomats, the Washington Post reported Wednesday that Iran had requested through intermediaries direct talks with Washington over its nuclear program.
The requests follow a May 8 letter from Ahmadinejad to US President George W. Bush, the first such communication between an Iranian and US leader in more than 25 years.
But Bush expressed doubts in Washington Tuesday that Iran wanted a negotiated solution to the dispute.
The US leader renewed a vow to defend Israel against any attack by Iran at a White House summit with the new Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
