Iran President willing to get back on talk with UN Security council

BEJING (Reuters): On Tuesday Hu Jintao the President of China told his Iranian counterpart that six-nation talks were the best way to guarantee Iran’s right of peaceful use of nuclear energy on the eve of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting in Kazakhstan.

Jintao told President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, both in the central Asian country’s capital Astana ahead of the summit, that Iran should “take substantial steps” to establish trust and “promote the process of dialogue,” state news agency Xinhua said.

“This is not only in the interest of the Iranian side, but also conducive to the general situation of peace and stability in the Middle East region,” said China’s president.

China joined Western powers in telling Iran its “consistent failure” to comply with United Nations resolutions “deepened concerns” about possible military dimensions to its nuclear programme.

US, Germany, France, the UK, Russia and China issued the statement a day after Iran said it would triple production of high-grade uranium and shift it to an underground bunker which would be protected from possible U.S. or Israeli air strikes.

Ahmadinejad said his country was willing to return to dialogue with the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany.

But Ahmadinejad last week said no inducement could persuade Iran to give up enrichment, despite trade incentives offered to Tehran by world powers. U.S. President Barack Obama said further sanctions were likely.

China is a big purchaser of oil from Iran, shunned by Western powers which say Tehran is seeking to develop the means to make nuclear weapons and has spurned requests from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog. Iran says its nuclear programme is peaceful.

China has voted in favour of the four past rounds of sanctions the UN Security Council have imposed on Tehran for refusing to freeze its uranium enrichment programme.