Iran Wants To Speed Up EU Nuclear Talks

31 January 2005 -- Iranian government spokesman Abdullah Ramazanzadeh says his country is unwilling to maintain much longer its freeze on uranium-enrichment activities.

In his weekly news conference, Ramazanzadeh urged the European Union to speed up its talks with Iran over Iran's nuclear program.

Britain, Germany, and France -- acting for the EU -- have been seeking to persuade Iran to drop sensitive nuclear processes such as uranium enrichment in exchange for political and economic incentives. Iran has agreed to suspend nuclear enrichment while the talks continue, but says it will resume enrichment if the talks do not succeed.

The United States charges that Iran is developing nuclear-weapon capability. Iran insists that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.

(Reuters/AFP)