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TEHRAN: Iran delivered a message to the EU on Tuesday as it faced a fresh ultimatum from six global powers to accept an incentives package to freeze sensitive nuclear work or face more UN sanctions.
But Iran insisted the message delivered to EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana was not a response to the latest offer drawn up by the major powers to end the five-year crisis over Tehran's nuclear drive.
"The message delivered today is not Iran's response to the six countries," a source with the Supreme National Security Council told AFP on condition of anonymity, without elaborating.
The Western warnings of fresh sanctions came as Iran declared that it could block the Strait of Hormuz, the crucial Gulf waterway through which much of the world's oil supplies passes.
Britain had warned that the lack of a positive answer from Tehran by the end of Tuesday would leave the powers with "no choice" but to ask the UN Security Council to take further punitive measures.
The new deadline was set after Iran ignored a previous demand to respond by last weekend to the package being offered by the permanent Security Council members - Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States - and Germany.
The United States and its allies fear the programme is a cover for developing nuclear weapons, a claim vehemently denied by Tehran which insists its aim is to generate electricity for its growing population.
The ultimatum came as Iran said on Monday it had successfully test-fired an anti-ship missile with a range of 300 kilometres that would allow it to close the Strait of Hormuz between Iran and Oman.
"No enemy vessels would be able to escape it," the commander of the elite Revolutionary Guards, General Mohammad Ali Jafari, said on state television.
"Given the equipment our armed forces have, an indefinite blockade of the Strait of Hormuz would be very easy," Jafari said.
Iran has in recent months frequently boasted of developing new weapons and military hardware but the claims have often met with scepticism from Western defence analysts.
Iran is the world's fourth-biggest crude oil producer and traders fear supply disruption from the Islamic republic if tension is further heightened.
On Monday, Solana held what a spokesman described as "inconclusive" talks with Iran's top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili.
In June, Solana presented an offer of economic and trade incentives, while Iran has put forward its own proposal, an all-embracing package of suggestions to resolve the problems of the world, including the nuclear issue.
However, Tehran has steadfastly refused to suspend its uranium enrichment activities, saying it is allowed to develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
The United Nations has imposed three sets of sanctions against Iran for its defiance and is mulling a fourth round of measures.
Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Hassan Ghashghavi on Monday dismissed the idea of a deadline as "media speculation" and insisted that negotiations were an "ongoing process".
Iranian state-run television said that in the Solana-Jalili telephone conversation, "both sides agreed to continue talks," and Solana's spokesman said that further contacts "are not ruled out in the coming days".
"They also emphasised that preserving this path (talks) needs a positive and constructive atmosphere," the Iran television report said without elaborating.
But France echoed Britain in suggesting that the time had come for stronger action.
"If we don't get an encouraging response from the Iranians, we will have to show firmness, resort to sanctions as in the past," France's deputy UN ambassador Jean-Pierre Lacroix told AFP in New York.
US State Department spokesman Gonzago Gallegos said Jalili had told Solana that Tehran would provide a written response on Tuesday.
Senior diplomats from the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China discussed the latest developments by telephone Monday.
"We agreed that in the absence of a positive response, we have no choice but to pursue further measures," Gallegos said.
- AFP/yb
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