United States sweetens Iran deal
Help with nuclear technology on table.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - World powers today gave Iran a package of incentives that includes U.S. nuclear technology to persuade Tehran to curb its uranium enrichment program, and the Islamic republic’s initial reaction was relatively upbeat.

Speaking on state television after receiving the proposals, top Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani said the initiative contains "positive steps" but also some "ambiguities."

Larijani, who met with European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, called the talks "constructive" and said Iran would respond after studying the incentives.

Diplomats told The Associated Press that the package includes a provision for the United States to supply Tehran with some nuclear technology if it stops enriching uranium - a major concession by Washington.

The incentives package offers other economic and political rewards, but it also contains the implicit threat of U.N. sanctions if Iran remains defiant.

In a breakthrough last week, the United States agreed to join in multinational talks on the package.

Details of the proposals have not been made public, but an early draft indicated that if Iran agrees to abandon uranium enrichment, the world would offer it help in building nuclear reactors, a guaranteed supply of nuclear fuel and European Airbus aircraft.

The European offer of light-water reactors meant for civilian nuclear energy purposes was revealed last month, but there was no previous suggestion that the Americans would also agree to help build Iran’s civilian nuclear program if Tehran freezes enrichment and negotiates.

The United States also reportedly sweetened the offer by saying it would lift some bilateral sanctions on Iran, such as a ban on sales of Boeing passenger aircraft and related parts.

Iran’s commercial airline fleet is largely made up of aging Boeings purchased before the 1979 revolution. It frequently complains that the U.S. ban on parts has undermined safety and blamed the ban for several deadly crashes in the past. U.S. pressure also has prevented Iranian attempts to purchase new Airbus aircraft.

The package was drawn up Friday in Vienna by the United States along with the four other veto-wielding members of the U.N. Security Council - Britain, France, Russia and China - plus Germany.

Solana, who arrived last night in Tehran, met Larijani for two hours at the Supreme National Security Council building in central Tehran. Journalists were barred. Iran’s initial reaction contained none of its usual insistence that it never would waive its right to enrichment.

Larijani did not identify the "ambiguities," but he said he had discussed them with Solana and that more talks would be required.

"We hope we will have negotiations and deliberations again after we have carefully studied the proposals," he said. "This is a framework of cooperation that requires taking careful steps from the outset."

In recent days, Iran’s leadership has alternated between talking tough and signaling it is open to negotiations - an attempt to portray to the Iranian public that it is not backing down even as it considers reversing its refusal to suspend enrichment.

Additionally, the U.S. offer to join in direct talks with Iran might have taken Tehran’s top officials off guard.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, normally a hard-line critic of the United States who insists that Tehran has a right to enrichment, said during the weekend that a breakthrough in negotiations was possible and welcomed the U.S. offer to join talks while rejecting preconditions.

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