Iran writes to Bush seeking way out of crisis

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

TEHRAN - Iran's president has sent an unprecedented letter to US President George W Bush, suggesting ways to ease tension over Tehran's nuclear programme, but it was not clear if it offered any compromise.

The White House said it was unaware of any letter from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and US intelligence chief John Negroponte said the move may have been timed to influence a UN Security Council debate on Iran.

Ahmadinejad wrote to Bush looking for "new ways of getting out of the current delicate situation of the world".

His letter is the first publicly announced personal communication from an Iranian president to his US counterpart since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Iranian government spokesman Gholamhossein Elham said the letter mentioned the nuclear dispute but he declined to say whether it offered direct talks with the United States.

The letter comes as Washington is seeking to forge a consensus among the major world powers for UN action against Iran over suspicions the Islamic Republic is trying to build a nuclear bomb. Tehran strenuously denies the charge.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has invited the foreign ministers of the five permanent UN Security Council members and Germany to dinner in New York on Monday, seeking a united front on a UN resolution to end Iran's atomic work.

But Iran was also trying to influence Council members, US intelligence chief Negroponte said.

"Certainly one of the hypotheses you'd have to examine is whether and in what way the timing of the dispatch of that letter is connected with trying in some manner to influence the debate before the Security Council," Negroponte told reporters.

Russia and China, which have a veto in the Security Council, are wary of US calls for tough action against Iran fearing Washington might use a UN resolution as a pretext for a military strike and any action could spark an oil crisis.

China's UN ambassador said on Monday his country opposed any resolution on Iran that invokes Chapter 7 of the UN Charter which allows for sanctions and even war, even though another resolution would be required to begin conflict.

Britain tried to play down fears of military action with Prime Minister Tony Blair ruling out an invasion of Iran and saying a nuclear strike "would be absolutely absurd".

Oil prices dropped after news of the letter on hopes that Ahmadinejad's remarks would be conciliatory.

But there was no evidence that Iran would make a volte-face on producing atomic fuel, the key Western demand.

Analysts reckoned the letter could be an attempt to dictate terms to Washington, with Iran styling itself as a regional heavyweight after announcing it had enriched its own uranium.

"It is a sort of announcement or approach from a position of power, that Iran is a global power to be reckoned with," Tehran-based political analyst Mahmoud Alinejad said.

The letter's contents and its tone are not known but in public oratory Iran takes a chastising tone with the United States, accusing it of bullying over Tehran's nuclear programme and of heavy-handed imperialism in Iraq.

Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani warned the West his country would not prove a push-over like Iraq.

But Larijani told Turkey's NTV television that Iran would not suffer the same fate as Iraq in language that suggested Ahmadinejad's letter would not be giving ground under pressure.

"Iran is a strong country. The United States should review its behaviour in the political arena," he said.

Military analysts do not think US forces would plan to invade Iran but would launch cruise-missile strikes and high-altitude bombing missions against Iranian nuclear sites.

When asked last month whether the United States was planning a tactical nuclear strike on Iran, Bush replied: "All options are on the table".

- REUTERS