it needs for a reactor that makes medical isotopes.
The response will come as a disappointment to the U.S., Russia and France, which endorsed the U.N. plan Friday they drafted in discussions with Iran earlier in the week. The agreement was meant to ease Western fears about Iran's potential to make a nuclear weapon.
While Iran did not reject the plan outright, state TV said that Tehran was waiting for a response to its own proposal to buy nuclear fuel rather than ship low-enriched uranium to Russia for further enrichment. Iran has often used counterproposals as a way to draw out nuclear negotiations with the West.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran is waiting for a constructive and confidence building response to the clear proposal of buying fuel for the Tehran research reactor," state TV quoted an unnamed source close to Iran's negotiating team as saying Friday.
Iranian opposition to the U.N. plan could be driven by concerns that it weakens Iran's control over its stockpiles of nuclear fuel and could be perceived as a concession to the U.S., which suspects Iran is using its nuclear program as a way to covertly develop weapons — an allegation denied by Tehran.
An unnamed member of Iran's negotiating team urged world powers Friday to "refrain from past mistakes in violating agreements and make efforts to win the trust of the Iranian nation," according to state TV.
President Barack Obama has stepped up diplomatic engagement with Iran since he took office in January and has faulted the Bush administration for refusing to talk to U.S. adversaries. But he has also threatened harsher sanctions if Iran does not cooperate to ease fears about the nature of its nuclear program.
The U.N. Security Council has already passed three sets of sanctions against Iran for failing to suspend uranium enrichment, but the U.S. faces a serious challenge in convincing Russia and China to go even further because of their close ties to Tehran.
The draft U.N. agreement was formalized Wednesday after three days of discussions in Vienna. The talks followed a similar meeting at the beginning of October in Geneva that included the highest-level bilateral contact between the U.S. and Iran in years.
The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, Mohamed ElBaradei, said after the completion of the Vienna talks that he hoped Iran and its three interlocutors — the U.S., Russia and France — would approve the plan by Friday.
The three countries heeded his call Friday before Iran announced its preference to buy the 20 percent-enriched uranium it needs for its Tehran reactor, which has been producing medical isotopes for the past few decades.
International concerns about Iran's nuclear program spiked in September when it was revealed the country was constructing a previously undisclosed uranium enrichment facility near the holy city of Qom.
Iran subsequently agreed to allow U.N. inspectors to visit the facility, and the official Islamic Republic News Agency said Friday that representatives from the International Atomic Energy Agency would arrive Saturday to start the inspection.
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