Iran wants big amendments of nuclear deal

The European Union's foreign policy chief Mohamed ElBaradei said on Tuesday there was no need to rework the U.N. draft as Iran wants big changes within the framework of a U.N. nuclear fuel deal. Tehran says it broadly accepts, a move that could unravel the plan and expose Tehran to the threat of harsher sanctions.

According to a report of the Reuters, ElBaradei said he and France's foreign minister suggested Tehran would expose itself to tougher international sanctions if tried to undo the plan.

Iran's state television Al Alam said, among the central planks of the plan opposed by Iran -- but requested by the West to cut the risk of an Iranian atom bomb -- was for it to send most of its low-enriched uranium reserve abroad for processing all in one go, .

Iran says it is enriching uranium only for nuclear power plant fuel, not for weaponry. But its history of nuclear secrecy and continued restrictions on U.N. inspections have raised Western suspicions of a covert bomb agenda.

Citing an unnamed official, the Arabic-language satellite television station said on Tuesday Iran would present its response to the proposed agreement within 48 hours, a week after a deadline set by its author, U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei.

Al Alam said Iran would "agree to the general framework of the draft proposal but will request some important amendments."

But senior lawmakers have said Iran should import foreign fuel rather than send abroad by the end of this year much of its own low-enriched uranium (LEU) stock -- its crucial strategic asset in talks with world powers -- as the proposal calls for.

Iran's foreign minister said on Monday it may want to do both under the deal, hinting Tehran could ship out much less LEU than the amount big powers want to delay by at least a year the possibility of Iran "weaponizing" enriched uranium.

The draft pact calls for Iran to transfer around 75 percent of its known 1.5 tons of LEU to Russia for further enrichment by the end of this year, then to France for conversion into fuel plates. These would be returned to Tehran to power a research reactor that produces radio-isotopes for cancer treatment.