Roundup: France rejects Iranian uranium offer

France rejected an Iranian offer to build a consortium to produce enriched uranium on Iranian soil in a bid to break the nuclear deadlock with the West.

Jean-Baptiste Mattei, spokesman for the French foreign ministry, said the offer, made on French radio earlier Tuesday by the deputy director of Iran's Atomic Energy Agency, Mohammad Saeedi, was " unexpected".

Mattei said any proposal should pass through EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana. "It's the channel of dialogue with Iranians, through which we wait for a response from the Iranians on the suspension," he said.

"The priority is to have negotiations, where each other can make whatever proposals it wishes," Mattei added.

Earlier in the day, Solana said it is "an interesting idea but it's difficult to put it in place."

"That is something we have to analyze in greater detail," Solana said on the sidelines of an EU defense ministers' meeting in Levi, Finland.

Saeedi said Tuesday morning in a radio interview: "We propose that France create a consortium for the production in Iran of enriched uranium."

"That way France, through the companies Eurodif and Areva, could control in a tangible fashion our enrichment activities," he said.

Iran has already failed to meet the UN Security Council's deadline for suspending its nuclear activities by Aug. 31. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last Saturday reiterated his country 's refusal to suspend its uranium enrichment program.

Source: Xinhua