Iran says still hopeful of UN drafted nuclear fuel deal

Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said today, that Iran was still hopeful that a UN drafted deal to supply nuclear fuel to a Tehran reactor could be finalised.

Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Wednesday, that Iran was still hopeful that a UN drafted deal to supply nuclear fuel to a Tehran reactor could be finalised.

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"The fuel exchange proposal is still on the table and we can carry it out," Mottaki said.

"We have had direct and indirect talks with all the sides of the Vienna group and discussed different aspects of a logical framework for an exchange (of fuel)."

Mottaki said, the deal can still be done "in a little while if they show some political will."

The International Atomic Energy Agency brokered a deal in Vienna last October which envisages Iran sending its low-enriched uranium (LEU) to France and Russia for conversion into fuel for its Tehran research reactor.

But Iranian officials have refused to hand over Tehran's stockpiles of LEU, insisting on a simultaneous exchange of the material for the fuel within the borders of the Islamic republic. World powers have opposed this condition.