Iran's president has said it is ready to send its enriched uranium abroad for further enrichment under a deal to ease concerns about its nuclear programme.

伊朗总统称，根据协议，伊朗将浓缩铀送到国外进行进一步浓缩以消除国际社会对其核项目的担忧。

Iran says it only wants nuclear power for peaceful purposes

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told state TV that Iran would have "no problem" if most of its stock was held for several months before being returned as fuel rods燃料棒.

Correspondents say such a decision would be a major shift in Tehran's position.

The US said that if this was a new offer, it was "prepared to listen".

Last month, diplomats¹ said Iran had informed the International Atomic Energy Agency国际原子能组织 (IAEA) that it did not accept the terms of the deal and had instead demanded a simultaneous同时的 exchange on its territory.

The US and its allies fear Iran is attempting to develop nuclear weapons. Iran insists its nuclear programme is entirely² peaceful.

'Definitive³ answer'

The deal agreed in October between Iran, the IAEA and the so-called P5+1 - the US, Russia, China, UK, France plus Germany - envisaged面对，正视 Iran sending about 70% of its low-enriched uranium to Russia and France, where it would be processed into fuel for a research reactor⁵.

But for months, Iranian officials publically criticised the terms and said they were unwilling⁶ to export the uranium without simultaneously⁷ receiving fuel in return. The proposal proved unacceptable to the West.

But in a television interview on Tuesday, President Ahmadinejad dismissed the concerns of his "colleagues" that the West would not return the uranium, saying Iran would respond by producing more.

"We have no problem sending our enriched uranium abroad," he said.

"We say: We will give you our 3.5% enriched uranium and will get the fuel. It may take four to five months until we get the fuel.

"If we send our enriched uranium abroad and then they do not give us the 20% enriched fuel for our reactor, we are capable of producing it inside Iran."

In an initial reaction to Mr Ahmadinejad's comments, US state department spokesman P J Crowley said the US was "not prepared to change the deal. We are not interested in renegotiating it. If Iran wants to accept it then they should inform the IAEA".

But a later response from the administration stressed that "if Iran has something new to say, we are prepared to listen".

BBC Tehran correspondent Jon Leyne, reporting from London, says that even now there will be scepticism怀疑 over whether this Iranian change of heart really means anything.

The US is pressing hard for new sanctions制裁，处罚 against Iran because of the nuclear programme, so this could well just be a case of the Iranian government playing for time, trying to weaken forces lined up against反对…… it, he says.