(Reuters) - Iran stood firm on its disputed nuclear program and rebuffed Western pressure for an immediate response to an offer of incentives to suspend uranium enrichment in talks with the European Union on Tuesday.
A meeting between chief Iranian negotiator Ali Larijani and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana ended with no sign of a result, although they agreed to keep in touch after Solana reports to major power foreign ministers in Paris on Wednesday, reports Trend.
Even as they met in Brussels, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad continued to breathe defiance, saying his country would not back down from its right to produce nuclear fuel.
"The Iranian nation will not retreat one iota on its way to realizing all of its rights, including complete nuclear rights and employing the capacities to produce nuclear fuel," Iran's student news agency ISNA quoted him as saying on a tour in northwest Iran.
The United States, which accuses Tehran of secretly working to build nuclear weapons, had demanded a clear Iranian response before next weekend's summit of Group of Eight industrialized nations in Russia or face possible U.N. Security Council action.
But Larijani told a joint news conference after four hours of talks with Solana: "Since we have to go into a long process, we must be patient and do everything exactly."
Before the meeting, he told reporters: "We are not used to acting before thinking."
A spokeswoman for Solana declined to comment on the content of talks but told reporters afterwards: "We want them to respond as clearly as possible, as quickly as possible."
Iran has said it will reply in late August to a package of technology, economic and political sweeteners, and an Iranian foreign ministry spokesman suggested its full answer would only emerge later during detailed negotiations on the offer.
"Iran's answer will not be given suddenly. The answers will be given during the negotiations," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi was quoted as saying by state radio, adding Tehran saw "ambiguities" in all three areas of the package.
NO FREEZE
An Iranian deputy foreign minister said Iran was not considering freezing its uranium enrichment activities as part of a solution.
"We did it before, we did it for two and a half years. It proved that it didn't work," Manuchehr Mohammadi said on a visit to China. "Nothing came as the fruitful and useful conclusion."
Mohammadi said Iran was optimistic about what he called Western "flexibility" over the incentives, but warned that any resort to sanctions would be counter-productive.
Separately, some Western diplomats accredited to the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency in Vienna said technical glitches appeared to have slowed down Iran's nuclear fuel-enrichment program and put on hold plans to expand it.
"We have been told of problems from people in a position to know. It's a slowdown in the process although we haven't been able to quantify it yet," said one diplomat, who like others asked for anonymity due to the topic's political sensitivity.
Diplomats say Russia and China, both veto-holders in the U.N. Security Council, are wary about imposing sanctions on Tehran and so acknowledge there is little pressure on Iran to give an early reply to the offer presented by Solana on June 6.
PROTESTERS
Outside the Brussels talks, some 60 supporters of the exiled Iranian opposition waved banners urging "U.N. sanctions to stop the game of the mullahs," insisting Tehran was not interested in solving the dispute and was merely playing for time.
The talks come a day before a meeting in Paris of foreign ministers from the five permanent members of the Security Council -- the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China -- and Germany, the six powers behind the incentives offer.
The package includes a state-of-the-art nuclear reactor with a guaranteed fuel supply, economic benefits and other incentives if Iran halts uranium enrichment.
Iran, the world's fourth largest oil exporter, rejects charges it seeks a nuclear weapon and argues it is solely interested in electricity generation.