Tehran is working on a formula to swap its low enriched uranium for 20%-enriched material, the Iranian foreign minister said Wednesday.
"We are considering a swap mechanism. We are keeping it on the table," Manouchehr Mottaki said.
He added that he was set for substantive dialogue with international mediators on the resolution of Iran's nuclear problem.
"I hope negotiations will produce good results," he said.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday that Tehran had "no problem" with shipping out its low enriched uranium abroad for further enrichment into 20% fuel for its nuclear research reactor.
Ahmadinejad dismissed concerns that the uranium would not be returned. In such a case, Iran would continue enriching uranium by itself, he said.
Iran, which is already under three sets of UN sanctions for refusing to halt uranium enrichment, recently announced plans to build 10 new uranium enrichment facilities.
The West suspects Iran of pursuing a secret nuclear weapons program, but the Islamic republic says it needs nuclear power solely for civilian purposes.
Under a plan drawn up in October at IAEA talks in Vienna between Iran, the UN, the U.S., Russia and France, the Islamic Republic was supposed to ship out its low-enriched uranium to Russia, where it would be enriched and then sent to France where it would be made into fuel rods for an Iranian reactor.
However, Tehran rejected the proposal and suggested it could consider a simultaneous swap of its low-enriched uranium for 20%-enriched uranium, but that the exchange would have to take place on its own territory.
ANKARA, February 3 (RIA Novosti)
