Iran said on Monday it does not insist on exchanging its low-enriched uranium for fuel for a research nuclear reactor on its own territory after the United States bluntly dismissed the offer.
"The Islamic republic does not insist on accepting its own proposal of exchanging 400 kilos of uranium on Kish" island in the Gulf, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki was quoted as saying by the Fars news agency.
"This proposal, which was previously discussed in bilateral talks, was offered by Iran as a goodwill gesture."
On Saturday Mottaki had proposed that such an exchange take place on the southern Gulf island, a free trade zone, saying this could be an initial step in a process that would take several years.
He said the process could begin "right away" if the United States, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany agreed.
UN nuclear watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had already ruled out such a swap taking place on Iranian soil, however.
Washington also dismissed Mottaki's offer, with a senior US official calling it inconsistent with a deal that would allow Iran to avoid further sanctions.
Tehran is already under three sets of UN Security Council sanctions for refusing to suspend uranium enrichment, a process world powers fear could be used for a covert nuclear weapons programme.
Iran vehemently denies the charge, saying that its nuclear ambitions are purely peaceful.
It has rejected an IAEA-brokered proposal that it ship out most of its stockpile of low-enriched uranium (LEU) for further processing by Russia and France into fuel for a research reactor in Tehran.
The world powers have been pushing for Iran to accept the proposal that it farm out its uranium enrichment work abroad.
Under the IAEA-brokered deal, Iran would be supplied with 20-percent enriched nuclear fuel for the reactor in return for allaying Western concerns by shipping out most of its stocks of LEU.
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