Iran mulls S.African idea to save atom treaty talks

By Mark Heinrich

VIENNA (Reuters) - South Africa proposed a compromise on Friday to prevent a global meeting on the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty from collapsing over Iranian objections to the agenda, and Tehran said it would consider the idea.

The proposal resembled a gesture by meeting chairman Japan made earlier in the day but dismissed by Iran as not good enough, heightening fears the 130-nation gathering would be dissolved before it drafts goals to shore up the NPT.

But the fact that South Africa, a pillar of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) of developing states to which Iran belongs, refloated the proposal for approval by all delegations lent it broader authority and heaped pressure on Iran to relent.

Iran has been blocking the required consensus for the agenda, drafted by Japan after months of consultations with NPT members, because it feels the programme would disproportionately target Tehran as the main threat to the treaty's integrity.

The NPT binds members without nuclear bombs not to acquire them, guarantees the right of all members to nuclear energy for peaceful ends, and obligates the original five nuclear powers from the post-World War Two era to phase out their arsenals.

North Korea left the NPT in 2003 and detonated a nuclear device last year, while Iran is in a stand-off with Western powers over suspicions it has a covert atomic bomb project.

Tehran denies this, saying it is enriching uranium only for electricity generation. U.N. sanctions have been imposed on Iran for refusing to suspend the programme, hiding research in the past and impeding U.N. nuclear watchdog investigations now.

SOUTH AFRICA LEAPS INTO BREACH