Tehran goes back on offer for French role

"No decision has been taken for the moment on how to form a consortium and the parties which will be invited to participate," foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad-Ali Hosseini said in a statement.

The deputy head of Iran's atomic energy organisation, Mohammad Saeedi, proposed on Tuesday that France create a consortium to enrich uranium in Iran, to allay international concerns over the nature of Iran's nuclear program.

The United States, France and Britain rejected the proposal as a stalling tactic and said it did not meet United Nations Security Council's demands that Iran freeze all uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities.

Another report says,Iran will not accept "any" suspension of uranium enrichment, Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli, the deputy to top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani, said yesterday.

"We will not accept any climbdown, we will not accept any suspension," Rahmani Fazli told the Fars news agency in an interview.

"The suspension of one month or two weeks that has been demanded by the Western powers will not solve anything."

Iran yesterday was facing a barrage of Western warnings as time has almost run out to clinch a deal over its nuclear programme and it could be hauled up before the UN Security Council within a week.

Western powers have reacted coolly to a proposal by the Islamic republic that France monitor the enrichment of uranium on Iranian soil as a way out of the impasse, with the United States dismissing the suggestion as "stalling".

Efforts to find a solution remain blocked by the question of uranium enrichment, a sensitive nuclear activity world powers want Tehran to suspend as proof it is not seeking nuclear weapons.

Iran insists it will not halt its programme.

"I hope that there is still room to resolve this," said US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is on a tour of the Middle East.

"But the international community is running out of time because soon its own credibility in terms of enforcing its own resolutions will be ... a matter of question," said Rice.

Officials in Washington and London suggested the momentum was now moving towards the issue being taken to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions within a week.

A high-ranking British official, who declined to be named, said preparations were now underway to propose a draft resolution at the UN Security Council under Article 41 of the UN Charter, which allows for economic sanctions.