US talks with Iran after pressure from Russia, China

NEW YORK: The United States has agreed to substantive talks with Iran over its nuclear programme after Tehran's allies -- Russia and China -- and eventually some of President George W Bush's own advisers told him that there was no other choice, a media report said on Thursday.

However, only a few of Bush's aides believe that Iran's leaders will meet the US' main condition that Iran first suspend all of its nuclear activities, including shutting down every centrifuge that could add to its small stockpile of enriched uranium, the New York Times reported.

Bush administration officials characterised their offer as a test of whether the Iranians want engagement with the West more than they want the option to build a nuclear bomb some day.

While the Europeans and the Japanese were quoted as saying they were elated by Bush's turnaround, some participants in the drawn-out nuclear drama questioned whether this was an offer intended to fail, devised to show the extent of Iran's intransigence.

"Either way after five years of behind-the-scenes battling within the administration, Bush
finally came to a crossroads at which both sides in the debate over Iran's engagers and isolaters, and some with a foot in each camp saw an advantage in seeing if they are serious,"  the Times said.

The paper quoted one participant in those debates, as saying that Bush told Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice several months ago that he needed "a third option," a way to get beyond either a nuclear Iran or an American military action.