Iran nuclear talks progressing: Blix

JAKARTA: The former chief of UN weapons inspectors in Iraq, Hans Blix, said Tuesday talks on Iran's controversial nuclear program appeared to be progressing.   

"The negotiation looks better and brighter now than it was half a year ago," the Swedish diplomat told a press conference after meeting Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.   

Blix was in Indonesia to present the president with a report on the world's nuclear, biological and chemical arms which he wrote with a team of experts put together by Sweden in September 2003.   

He has already presented the report, which generally decries the stagnation of global nuclear disarmament efforts, to a series of world leaders beginning with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on June 1.   

Blix said it would be "wise" for Iran stop enriching uranium and instead buy nuclear fuel from the international market to reduce tensions in the Middle East.   

"They have the right to enrich uranium but they are not obliged to. They get some advantage from staying away from it, which would increase the tension very much in the Middle East," he said.   

"It is for them to define what price they would charge in order to suspend enrichment. It's a matter of negotiations."   

Iran insists that its nuclear programme is solely aimed at generating electricity and denies US charges that it seeks nuclear weapons.   

The United States and five other countries -- Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China -- have made Iran's suspension of uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities a condition for talks on Tehran's atomic programme.   

Iran has ruled out suspending enrichment and has said it will come up with a counter-offer.   

Blix also welcomed Yudhoyono's plan to visit North Korea next month to try to defuse tensions over the Stalinist state's nuclear programme.   

"I think it's very hopeful that your president is going to North Korea and he may well have a mediating influence," he said.   

"It's very urgent that they get back to the talks in Beijing" he said, referring to the six-nation talks involving the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia aimed at ending Pyongyang's nuclear weapons drive.   

Jakarta has long-standing ties with North Korea, dating from the era of Indonesia's first president Sukarno.