Uranium talks are 'last chance' for Tehran

Western powers are to set two demands, including the closure of Iran's best-protected uranium facility, when negotiations over the country's nuclear programme resume this week.The United States and its European allies will also tell Iran that it must stop refining uranium to a concentration of 20%, a level considered a short step away from weapons grade, and move existing stocks of fuel already enriched to such levels abroad.The demands signal a Western acceptance of the most important conditions that Israel says must be fulfilled if it is to be persuaded to drop its threat of uni-lateral military action against Iran's nuclear facilities.President Barack Obama has warned Iran that the talks, which begin on Friday, represent its "last chance" for a diplomatic resolution to the crisis. Iranian media said the talks, which collapsed more than a year ago, would be held in Istanbul, apparently dropping a push by Tehran to stage the talks in a new venue. Western diplomats have been quoted as saying that Iran will be told it must seal and ultimately dismantle its Fordow uranium enrichment plant, buried deep inside a mountain near the holy city of Qom, as a sign of its sincerity.Iran has begun enriching uranium to 20% at Fordow and is moving much of its nuclear fuel to the plant. This has alarmed Israel, whose US-provided "bunker-busting" bombs would probably not be able to destroy the facility.Iran says it plans to triple its stocks of the higher-grade fuel for a research reactor that produces medical isotopes.