(RTTNews) - Iran on Wednesday rejected part of a UN-proposed nuclear deal that requires it to ship out its low-enriched uranium to foreign countries for further enrichment, but indicated that it would instead consider exchanging uranium for nuclear fuel if carried out inside the country.

"Iran will not send its 3.5-percent-enriched uranium out of the country," Iranian news agencies quoted Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki as saying on Wednesday. "That means we are considering to exchange the enriched uranium inside Iran."

Mottaki also criticized the United States for exerting pressure on Iran to accept the UN-proposed deal, stating that western nations were trying to make Iran respond to the proposal in "the manner that they expect."

Late last month, Iran had submitted its initial response to a nuclear deal proposed by International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei to end the standoff between Tehran and the west over Iran's disputed nuclear program.

However, Teheran said later that its initial response to the proposed deal was "not an answer to the draft agreement," adding that it would present a formal reply to the proposal only after further negotiations based "on its technical and economic considerations regarding how to procure fuel for the Tehran reactor."
Earlier, ElBaradei had presented his proposal after three days of intense negotiations at a IAEA-hosted meeting in Vienna. The Vienna negotiations involved diplomats from the U.S., France, Russia and Iran. Except for Iran, all the other nations involved in the negotiations have accepted the proposed plan.

The IAEA-proposed plan envisaged shipping low-enriched Iranian uranium to Russia for further enrichment, and then to France for conversion into actual fuel for Tehran's medical-purpose reactor that makes isotopes.

An agreement to process low-enriched Iranian uranium in a third country is widely seen as an amicable solution to the issue, as it would give Iran the nuclear fuel it requires to run its research reactor while guaranteeing the West that Tehran will not have enough nuclear material to convert into finer-grade uranium required for making nuclear weapons.

Though Iran says its nuclear program is intended for peaceful civilian power generation purposes only, the West suspect it a cover up for the Islamic country's nuclear weapon ambitions. Iran has survived three sets of sanctions imposed on it by the UN Security Council following refusal to halt its nuclear development work.

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