VIENNA — Iran began to enrich a second batch of uranium in its research plant this week on the same day that world powers offered it an incentive package conditioned on its suspension of nuclear activities, the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a report released Thursday.
The timing of the nuclear work, which Western diplomats suggested was politically calculated, appeared to signal that Iran would fight to continue enriching uranium despite the demands by the global community.
"On the timing, knowing the Iranians, nothing is left to chance," said a European diplomat, who requested anonymity.
In an offer delivered Tuesday to Tehran by the European Union's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, Iran would get a package of incentives -- including trade and economic measures and help building light-water reactors to generate electricity -- in exchange for giving up its enrichment work.
The IAEA report says Iran has reintroduced uranium gas into its centrifuges and started to process a new batch of raw uranium into UF6, the gas that is the feedstock for enriched uranium.
There is no deadline for a response to the offer, but Western diplomats have said they expect Iran to answer in weeks not months and Iranian officials are expected to work hard to win their position. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will meet next week with Chinese President Hu Jintao, whose government is one of the six that presented the offer to Iran.
Diplomats and experts agree that the biggest task will be to satisfy the parties on the issue of enrichment. Iran has said it will not give up its right as a signatory of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty to pursue atomic technology for peaceful purposes.
"Uranium enrichment may be the sticking issue.... How to deal with it is absolutely critical," said a senior diplomat in Vienna. "You have to find a face-saving formula for the Iranians and Americans."
British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Thursday that Iran would cause "a lot of difficulty" if it refused to suspend uranium enrichment.
"They should know that all of us are seeking a diplomatic solution to this, and whether we can get one depends to an extent on them," Blair said.
In a major policy shift, the United States agreed last week to join France, Britain and Germany in direct talks with Iran if it suspended its nuclear activities. The U.S. has not had diplomatic relations with Iran since 1979, and the Bush administration insists that it will not negotiate while Tehran has even a single centrifuge spinning.
