Special report: Iran Nuclear Crisis

Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani offered to suspend Tehran's nuclear enrichment program for eight weeks during seven hours of talks with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana over the weekend, an EU diplomat said on Sunday.

But the diplomat was unclear whether Iran would meet Western demands it suspend enrichment before talks on trade incentives designed to halt Iranian pursuit of technology.

Two months is nothing, as the United States and others want a long-term suspension to restore confidence that Iran's nuclear programme is geared only to generate electricity, the diplomat was quoted by the Reuters as saying.

The weekend talks in Vienna were seen as a final chance to seek a compromise before possible punitive action after Iran ignored an Aug. 31 Security Council deadline to stop purifying uranium for use as nuclear fuel.

Larijani and Solana said they cleared up misunderstandings and made progress in a search for common ground.

Solana consulted with foreign ministers of the six powers by phone during the talks and would brief them on the results before they hold a conference call on Monday to discuss what to do next, EU diplomats said.

However, Aliasghar Soltanieh, Iranian ambassador to UN nuclear watchdog agency who accompanied Larijani, denied that a suspension had been discussed with Solana.

"Iran has openly said that there is no legal and technical basis for such a demand (to suspend enrichment)," Soltanieh told Iranian state television in an interview aired from Vienna.

Tehran insists its nuclear programme, based on the uranium enrichment, is entirely peaceful.

The US and Britain suspect that Iran is engaged in a camouflaged bid to assemble nuclear bombs.

The EU, Russia, China and the US have offered Iran a package of economic, trade, political and nuclear incentives if it shelves its enrichment activities, but Tehran says it is willing to negotiate on the offer only without any preconditions.

Editor: Yan