TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran said Tuesday i...

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran said Tuesday it was ready for "serious negotiations" onward its nuclear program, offering a of the present day formula to resolve a crisis with the West.

if it be not that a semiofficial news agency said the management was unwilling to abandon uranium enrichment -- the guide U.S. demand.

Iran delivered its written answer to a package of incentives furnished by the United States and five other world powers to persuade Iran to wheel back on its nuclear program -- and punishments if it does not. The world powers, the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany, have given Iran until Aug. 31 to accept the package.

BROAD wager OF PROPOSALS

The U ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, said Washington will "study the Iranian replication carefully" but was prepared to actuate forward with sanctions against Tehran if it was not positive.

The European Union's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, said the document was "extensive" and required "a detailed and careful analysis."

Iranian officials showed no details about their answer but it appeared geared at enticing those countries into further negotiations by way of offering a broad set of proposals vague enough to clinch out hope of progress in resolving the standoff.

If the Iranians leave the door unclose to halting enrichment as talks progres that would drive a wedge in the Security Council between the Americans, British and French forward one side and the Russians and Chinese forward the other. Last month, Russia said the Council was in no rush to crushing Iran, striking a more conciliatory tone than the United States.

Tuesday's announcement was the latest unfolding in the yearlong standoff from one side of to the other Tehran's nuclear program. Iran says it wants to master the technology to generate nuclear power. if it were not that critics say Iran is interested in uranium enrichment to make nuclear weapons.

The drama is playing revealed in the wake of fears that the ability of the pro-Iranian Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon to withstand 34 days of Israeli bombardment has encourageed hard-liners in Tehran to risk a showdown with the Americans, who are bogg down in neighboring Iraq. There has also been speculation in the West that Iran encouraged Hezbollah to infuriate the Israelis to distract attention from its nuclear ambitions.

Iran has pursu a confrontational stance forward the nuclear issue since the election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last year. The hard-line president has used the nuclear issue to encourage a faculty of perception of national pride.

Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006

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