Hamburg: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Monday Iran would be ready for nuclear talks with world powers in August.
"We will be ready to hold talks with the 5+1 during the end of the Iranian month of Mordad (third week of August)," the president said in Tehran.
Ahmadinejad said that besides the five permanent United Nations Security Council member states plus Germany, other countries such as Brazil and Turkey should be involved in the negotiations.
He also said he would ask everyone involved in the talks to clarify their position on nuclear weapons possessed by Israel.
Ahmadinejad said it was US President Barack Obama who asked the leaders of Brazil and Turkey to mediate a swap of nuclear fuel for Tehran`s medical reactor, and then later ignored it.
"Iran de facto accepted the mediation proposed by Obama himself, but as soon as the Tehran agreement was made, the US pushed towards a new UN resolution (against Iran)," Ahmadinejad said.
He said that the Tehran agreement was part of Iran`s willingness for talks with world powers upon the basis of understanding and logic but that the US and its allies replied with more sanctions.
Due to the failure of the uranium swap, Iran started uranium enrichment at 20 percent level last February and claimed last week to have already produced 17 kilograms of the reactor fuel.
Iran also claimed it would be able to produce fuel rods for the Tehran reactor by March 2011, and afterwards start construction of a new medical reactor to replace it.
The West fears Iran is secretly pursuing a nuclear weapons programme, a charge Tehran denies.
IANS
