Vienna - The United States, France and Russia approved a deal on Friday to process Iran's nuclear fuel abroad, which only left Iran to sign off on the confidence-building step designed to defuse the standoff over the country's nuclear programme. But an anonymous Iranian source indicated on Iranian state television that Iran might not agree to ship its enriched uranium to Russia for further processing and later use in a medical reactor in Tehran, as foreseen by the agreement drafted by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Rather, Iran would simply like to purchase the nuclear material, the source said.
"The signals we got this morning from Vienna were not very positive," French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said in Beirut, referring to Iran's stance.
According to diplomats, the US and French ambassadors formally submitted their countries' consent to the IAEA proposal at agency's seat in Vienna.
"We look forward to Iran's reply," said Mike Hammer, the spokesman of the US National Security Council.
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in Moscow that "we agree to these proposals."
A French Foreign Ministry spokesman confirmed Thursday that his country stood ready to take the material processed in Russia and turn it into actual fuel elements for Iran.
France is one of the few countries with this technical capability.
The countries involved have described the possible agreement as an important confidence-building measure, because it would reduce the likelihood of Iran using the uranium for nuclear weapons. Iran denies it has any such military intentions.
The material that Western countries would like Iran to ship out by the end of the year constitutes most of the Islamic state's stock of low-enriched uranium.
Once the uranium has been turned into fuel elements for the Tehran reactor, it would be very difficult to use it in atom bombs.
IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei set a Friday deadline to his draft agreement, the product of two and a half days of talks among the four countries earlier this week in Vienna.
The permanent UN Security Council members - Britain, China, France, Russia and the US - along with Germany, are set to hold a new round of wider-ranging nuclear talks with Iran in Geneva next week.
If signals remained negative about a deal, Kouchner said, it would be "unfortunate" for the next round in Geneva.
