Rice maintains deadline on Iranian nuclear response

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Wednesday maintained a mid-July deadline for Iran to accept an offer of incentives aimed at curbing its nuclear ambitions.

Leaders of the Group of Eight major industrial powers had been expecting to examine Iran's response at a meeting in Saint Petersburg starting on July 15, but, as in the past, Iran resisted all attempts to set a calendar.

Rice said "we still intend to have a substantive response from Iran before the middle of July when the heads of state will meet in St. Petersburg.

"It simply makes sense for the world to have some kind of indication of whether Iran intends to pursue the negotiated track or not," she told a joint press conference with Turkey's visiting deputy prime minister and foreign minister Abdullah Gul.

Rice also referred to a meeting scheduled Wednesday between Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana but which had been postponed to Thursday on Larijani's request.

The meeting was aimed at finding out whether Iran is ready to accept the international package of economic and political incentives in return for suspending its uranium enrichment program.

"We will see what takes place over the next couple of days," Rice said.

"But if, indeed, Iran is trying to stall, it's not going to work. The international community has said that we need to get an answer, an indication of where Iran is going with this.