Key US allies have begun debating whether to tolerate a less-than-full freeze by Iran of its uranium enrichment program -- a stance that could put them at odds with Washington, officials said.
The officials -- US and European diplomats and government employees -- said that the deliberations, involving senior British, French and German decision-makers, were preliminary and that no conclusions had been drawn. Germany was supportive, France opposed and Britain noncommittal, they said on Friday.
"Nothing is on paper," a European diplomat said, describing the tentative plan as a "freeze for peace."
However, with the US insisting that any enrichment freeze be total, such consideration could put major strains on US-led attempts to show unity on the issue.
It could also potentially lead Washington to settle for less than it has been insisting on in attempts to ban the prospect of Iran having nuclear arms.
For the Europeans, though, a compromise would placate important EU members Italy and Spain and some smaller countries looking for more flexibility on how to define an enrichment freeze.
A US official said "there is some truth" to the reports of the discussions among the British, French and Germans, adding "We're still very skittish on that."
The US has been counting on Britain, France and Germany in its four-year campaign to contain Iran's nuclear ambitions, specifically by getting it to abandon uranium enrichment, a program that can create the fissile material for the core of nuclear warheads.
The support of permanent UN Security Council members Britain and France has been key. The council has passed two sets of sanctions since December against Iran -- particularly for its defiance of council demands for an enrichment freeze.
With permanent members Russia and China only reluctantly backing sanctions, and only in weakened form, a US without European support would have the hard choice of either backing away from its insistence on a full enrichment freeze or being isolated.
The officials spoke amid signs that Tehran was ready for concessions in attempts to weaken international pressure on it over the enrichment issue, with the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) saying the Islamic republic had agreed to provide him with answers on past suspicious nuclear activities within two months.
Beside demanding an enrichment freeze -- and a stop to construction of a plutonium-producing reactor -- the Security Council has called on Iran to provide answers to the IAEA on activities that could be linked to a weapons program.
While the key issue remains enrichment, any follow-through by Tehran on its decision to share sensitive information with the agency could increase good will toward it and feed sentiment for a compromise that would allow it to retain some elements of its enrichment program.
The proposal to IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei came on the eve of a new round of talks between Larijani and Javier Solana, the EU's foreign policy chief and built on a recent offer by Larijani to provide answers sought by the IAEA.
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