Iran said on Friday 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 an August 31 meeting. 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.
Larijani was speaking after a meeting in Vienna with IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei, which appeared to be an attempt to forestall the EU's efforts.
"With the power that Iran enjoys in the region, there is no way that Iran can be worried about the threat of the Security Council," he said, speaking through an interpreter.
ElBaradei is due to report on Iran's activities on September 3. Larijani said he thought talks could still succeed, and France said it was still open to talks.
"The door is open, our hand is outstretched, and so we are completely open to contact with the Iranians, and such contact could occur at any time," French Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei told a regular news briefing.
Larijani said on Thursday Iran was finalising a new plan which would include broadening negotiations to involve nations outside the European Union trio.
Countries within the Non-Aligned Movement of mainly developing states and "major countries who could have an impact on negotiations" had expressed an interest in getting involved in the talks or in parallel negotiations, he told reporters.
"There have been several but I can only mention one - South Africa has been particularly active in this area," he said.
Iran's Supreme National Security Council spokesman said the initiative would also encompass plans for resuming other parts of Iran's nuclear programme, currently suspended under an agreement with the EU3 made last November.
Iran says all it wants to do is build nuclear power stations to satisfy booming domestic demand for electricity.
But the United States says Iran's record of hiding its nuclear programme for 18 years and irregularities exposed by IAEA inspectors reveal its desire to build a bomb.
The EU says Iran broke its pledge to suspend nuclear work while talks were in progress. The EU3 is now preparing for the IAEA board meeting on September 19, when the trio is expected to urge the board to refer Tehran to the UN Security Council.
The Europeans and Americans had explored the possibility of an emergency board meeting before September 19, but developing countries on the IAEA's 35-nation board, along with China and Russia, opposed the idea, EU diplomats told Reuters.
What happens at the September 19 IAEA meeting will depend on ElBaradei's report, EU diplomats said.
"First we have to see what is in the report, which will formally say that Iran has violated the suspension, we expect," the diplomat said.
But there will probably be resistance to a Security Council referral from the non-aligned developing states which make up around a third of the board, diplomats said.
Russia has called on Iran to resume the suspension but has repeatedly said it opposes a Security Council referral.
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