U.S., Russian, French leaders talk over phone on Iran's nuclear issue

U.S. President Barack Obama had telephone calls with his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev and French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Saturday, the White House said.

During their separate telephone talks, the three leaders exchanged views over the settlement of Iran's nuclear issues.

The three heads of state agreed to a proposal by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to have Iran ship its uranium abroad for processing, and urged Tehran to accept the offer, the White House said.

On Oct. 1, in the talks between Iran and a UN-backed group of six nations, the United States, Britain, Russia, France, Germany and China in Geneva, Iran agreed in principle to ship most of its existing low-grade enriched uranium to Russia and France, where it would be processed into fuel rods with a purity of 20 percent.

The enriched uranium would be transported back to Iran to be used in a research reactor for the manufacture of medical radioisotopes.

The IAEA set Friday as deadline for Iran to make official response to the proposal. However, Iran said that it remains "working and elaborating on all details of this proposal, from technical aspect and all other dimensions," and that it will respond next week to the proposal.

Source:Xinhua