Iran Mocks European Nuclear Incentives

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, center top, talks with his Chinese counterpart Li Zhaoxing, bottom, during a meeting in Beijing, China, Tuesday, May 16, 2006. Lavrov is meeting with top Chinese leaders as the two countries coordinate their diplomacy on Iran's nuclear standoff. Others are unidentified. (AP Photo/Frederic J. Brown, Pool) (Frederic J. Brown - AP)

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran's president mocked a package of incentives to suspend uranium enrichment, saying Wednesday they were like giving up gold for chocolate _ defiance that appeared certain to complicate U.S. efforts to curb Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

"Do you think you are dealing with a 4-year-old child to whom you can give some walnuts and chocolates and get gold from him?" President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad asked derisively.

He spoke before a huge crowd in the city of Arak, the site of a heavy-water reactor that is scheduled for completion by early 2009. Such facilities produce plutonium as a byproduct usable in building nuclear weapons.

Signaling the difficulties ahead, a high-level, six-nation meeting on Iran was postponed Wednesday, reflecting differences between the United States and its allies on one side, and the Chinese and Russians on the other.

The London meeting of senior officials from the five permanent Security Council members and Germany was to have been held Friday, but was postponed to Tuesday at the earliest, diplomats told The Associated Press.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the session was postponed because "we're trying to put together a package that would include incentives on one side and penalties."

"I don't think there is a full agreement on exactly what would cormpise the package," he said. "This is complex, multilateral diplomacy. It takes a little bit of time."

China and Russia have opposed bringing Iran's case to a vote in the U.N. Security Council, where the United States, Britain and France have pressed for sanctions.

Only a day earlier, European nations said they might add a light-water reactor to a package of incentives meant to persuade Tehran to permanently give up enrichment.

But Ahmadinejad heaped scorn on the offer in the nationally televised speech Wednesday.

"They say they want to offer us incentives," he said. "We tell them: keep the incentives as a gift for yourself. We have no hope of anything good from you."

His defiance was met with shouts of, "We love you Ahmadinejad!" from the crowd.