Iran is ready to ask its parliament to ratify an accord allowing UN inspectors to resume snap checks of its nuclear facilities on certain conditions, Iran's Embassy in Paris said on Friday.

The Iranian statement, which came the day after France accused Iran of pursuing a secret military nuclear programme, sketched out a three-stage process to end a stand-off with the international community over Iran's nuclear programme.

The embassy statement linked the new offer to the West accepting its use of "modern centrifuges," proposed by some American and British scientists, which permit only limited enrichment.

"If such guarantees were accepted, Iran would agree to submit to parliament for ratification the additional protocol," it said.

Iran says it only wants to produce low-grade enriched uranium, suitable for use in power reactors. But many Western countries fear it could use the same technology to manufacture highly enriched uranium, which can be used to make atomic warheads.

Several senior Iranian officials have stressed in recent days their desire to find a negotiated solution to the nuclear issue.

"Today, we are a nuclear country and we are ready to negotiate with other countries to remove their concerns," Gholamreza Aghazadeh, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, told state television on Thursday.

"If a proper solution is suggested, we are ready to negotiate. They have to stop threatening us with sanctions and other threats," he said.

"I believe that apart from the United States and Israel, the other countries want to find a way out of the current situation and we want a solution as well, so everyone should make an attempt to resolve the issue," he added.

US presses UN for strong statement

Also on Thursday, US Ambassador John Bolton said the UN Security Council must deliver a strong statement that "gets the Iranians' attention" when it addresses Teheran's disputed nuclear weapons programme for the first time in the coming days.

Bolton and other senior US officials suggested that if the Security Council does not take tough action, the United States might look elsewhere to punish Iran possibly by rallying its allies to impose targeted sanctions.

"We're going to press for as vigorous a response in the council as we can get and hope that that gets the Iranians' attention," Bolton told reporters. "If the Iranians do not back off from their continued aggressive pursuit of nuclear weapons, we'll have to make a decision of what the next step will be."

Bolton spoke as the United States and the other four permanent members of the council weighed proposals for an initial response to the Iran nuclear crisis. The council's first step will likely be a nonbinding presidential statement, but the contents of even that are highly disputed.

Officials in Washington have raised the possibility of a Security Council resolution backed by the threat of military force that would demand Iran abandon uranium enrichment and answer outstanding questions about its nuclear program. The United States also wants the statement to include some condemnation of Iran.

Source: China Daily