Powers urge Iran to reconsider nuclear offer

By David Brunnstrom and Dave Graham

BRUSSELS/BERLIN (Reuters) - Senior officials from six world powers said on Friday they were disappointed Iran had not accepted proposals intended to delay its potential to make nuclear bombs, and urged Tehran to reconsider.

But the officials, from Britain, France, the United States, Germany, Russia and China, stopped short of specific discussion of further sanctions that could be imposed on Iran, a senior EU official said after the talks in Brussels.

"We are disappointed by the lack of follow-up on the three understandings reached (in the proposed deal)," the powers said in a joint statement, which said Iran had not agreed to a meeting before the end of October to discuss the nuclear issue.

"We urge Iran to reconsider the opportunity offered by this agreement... and to engage seriously with us in dialogue and negotiations," said the statement read out by Robert Cooper, the EU official who chaired the meeting.

The International Atomic Energy Agency had brokered a plan under which Iran would send low-enriched uranium to Russia and France, but Tehran on Wednesday rejected the proposal.

Under the initiative, Iran was given the option of shipping some 75 percent of its low-enriched uranium out of the country for it to be converted into fuel plates for a Tehran reactor that makes isotopes for cancer treatments.

The six powers met after U.S. President Barack Obama warned there could be a package of sanctions against Iran within weeks.

A senior EU official said sanctions were discussed at the meeting in general, not specific terms. "These things are about timing and this was not the right time," he said.