The United States will study Iran's response to an incentives offer by world major powers to halt its nuclear program, the State Department said on Tuesday.
"We're going to take a look at it," State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos told reporters, saying the U.S. received a copy of the Iranian response by e-mail from the office of EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.
"We are looking for a clear, positive response from Iran and in the absence of that we're going to have no choice but to pursue further measures against them," the spokesman noted. He declined to disclose the contents of the Iranian document.
Representatives of the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany had earlier held a telephone conference on the Iranian nuclear program Monday.
"We agreed in the absence of a clear, positive response from Iran (that) we have no choice but to pursue further measures against Iran," Gallegos said on Monday.
On July 19, Solana and Iran's top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili held talks to discuss Tehran's disputed nuclear program.
The United States, in a break with past policy, sent Undersecretary of State William Burns to join the talks.
During the one-day meeting, Iran failed to give a clear answer to the incentives package proposed by five UN permanent members plus Germany.
However, both Solana and Jalili said the meeting was positive and constructive and had promoted understanding of each other's positions. They also agreed to talk again by phone or in person about two weeks.
Last week, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said no deadline had been agreed upon during the Geneva meeting for Tehran to respond to the package of incentives.
The United States accuses Iran of secretly developing nuclear weapons under the cover of a civil nuclear program, a charge firmly denied by Tehran.
Source:Xinhua
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