Iran says has new proposals to end nuclear standoff

By Hashem Kalantari and Sue Pleming

TEHRAN/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday Iran had ready proposals to end a standoff with six world powers as Washington insisted it would not drop a demand that Tehran suspend uranium enrichment work.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said major powers had not had a response yet from Tehran for talks over its nuclear program and she had not seen "any kind of proposal" from Iran to resolve the stalemate over its nuclear plans.

"We have prepared a package that can be the basis to resolve Iran's nuclear problem. It will be offered to the West soon," Ahmadinejad said in a televised speech in Iran's southeastern province of Kerman.

The United States, Russia, China, France, Germany and Britain said last week they would ask European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana to invite Iran to a meeting to find "a diplomatic solution to this critical issue."

It marked a significant shift in U.S. policy under President Barack Obama, whose predecessor, George W. Bush, shunned direct talks with Tehran as long as it pressed ahead with uranium enrichment that the West believes is aimed at building a bomb but Iran says is for peaceful purposes.

The Obama administration has said it will meet Iran "without preconditions" but Clinton, who met Solana in Washington on Wednesday, made clear the United States had not given up pushing for Tehran to suspend uranium enrichment.

"We have not dropped or added any conditions," she said, without elaborating.

SANCTIONS TALK