Proposal Would Let Iran Enrich Uranium

Talking with reporters in Laredo, Tex., President Bush said Larijani's reaction to the proposals "sounds like a positive response to me."

"I want to solve this issue with Iran diplomatically. . . . We will see if the Iranians take our offer seriously. The choice is theirs to make," Bush said.

The new package embodies the "robust diplomacy" that Bush endorsed, according to U.S. officials, in hopes of broadening policy options that had been narrowing to two unattractive options: military strikes on Iran's known nuclear facilities, or acquiescence to an Iranian nuclear program that was only lightly monitored by the IAEA.

Diplomats said the bid also includes elements mentioned in earlier rounds of negotiations: Washington would selectively relax long-standing economic sanctions to allow the sale of spare parts for civilian airliners to Iran, as well as technology for earthquake early-warning systems and meteorological study. Like the American offer to join the talks directly, the moves signal at least the potential for further future engagement between Washington and Tehran.

But a deal will pivot first on Iran's decision whether to suspend enrichment, a move it has repeatedly insisted it will not make. A diplomat said the offer reflected weeks of intense and high-level discussions in Washington and in Tehran aimed at deflecting confrontation.

"Each side has taken a more serious look at what the other wants and how compromise can be reached," a Western diplomat said.

In the Bush administration's view, the possibility for Iran to one day enrich uranium was "a very important part of the deal, and it's what will allow Iran to accept it," said a U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "Iran always spun previous offers as an attempt to keep it from exercising its rights to enrich. Now that is explicitly not the case."

The move also reflects a new reality: Iran announced in April that it had made advancements toward industrial-level enrichment of uranium. Iranian officials boasted that the achievement "changed the facts on the ground."

Tehran likely will fight to retain that capability on a small scale. "This will be the big issue, and the Iranians will hold out, since they are already doing it anyway," the U.S. official said.

To allow Iran to proceed with other elements of its nuclear program, such as bringing online a power plant nearing completion at Bushehr on the Persian Gulf, the proposal suggests that Iran import enriched uranium from Russia for the duration of its own enrichment moratorium.

Diplomats in Washington and European capitals now expect weeks of private contacts among European, Iranian, Russian, Chinese and U.S. officials to work out details for negotiations over the package -- talks about talks, since the package is intended to reopen formal negotiations. Officials said the latter could begin as soon as next month, if Iran agrees to take a first step forward by suspending its current research and development work.

"They need time to swallow and actually digest not only the proposal but also the American moves, especially the latter," said a European diplomat resident in Iran who asked not to be identified further.

"The most significant part of the package is that the Americans said they're willing to sit at the table. Everything else, I think, is minor compared to that."

No formal deadline has been announced for Iran's response, although Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has described a time frame of weeks rather than months. Other diplomats said a "natural deadline" would be the summit of the Group of Eight industrialized nations set to begin July 15 in St. Petersburg.

Linzer reported from New York. Staff writer Michael Abramowitz in Laredo contributed to this report.