German Foreign Minister Frank- Walter Steinmeier said here Sunday that a diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear crisis remained the best.

In an interview with ARD TV, Steinmeier said that he did not think the west should be caught up in a "mental militarization".

"We have to exhaust the diplomatic options that we still have at our disposal," he told ARD, which released the interview before its planned schedule.

Steinmeier said, "We are working to ensure such as escalation as military pressure does not happen."

"I think we have shown a lot of patience already. It was in 2003 that the international nuclear monitors established that the nuclear ambitions in Tehran were incompatible with the non- proliferation treaty."

He noted that Tehran has counted on succeeding in splitting the international community, adding "So far that has not happened. I think we can see the interest in not allowing a spread of weapons of mass destruction, especially nuclear weapons, predominates in the (International Atomic Energy Agency) Board of Governors."

On the same day, Iranian chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani said the doors for diplomacy were open in the ongoing dispute.

Germany, France and Britain, which had been trying to persuade Iran to give up its nuclear program in the past few years, broke off negotiations with Iran after it resumed nuclear research early this.

Source: Xinhua