Iran rejects the West's insistence that it suspend enrichment as a condition for the resumption of talks on its nuclear programme. Negotiator Ali Larijani did not address that subject when talking with the German newsweekly Focus, but was asked if a suspension was conceivable as an outcome of the negotiations.

"That is not completely ruled out," Larijani was quoted as saying. "However, we cannot be forbidden the possession of this technology."

Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency, has called for a "time out" both on enrichment and further UN sanctions against Iran.

Larijani said a "time out" would mean that "we maintain our current state of development; in other words, we leave uranium enrichment at the level it is at now," Focus reported.

"The problem is that we already have the know-how for uranium enrichment; so we cannot go backward at this point," he was quoted as saying. "It may be that the West does not like that. But that is how it is, and we must negotiate on this basis."