Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Wednesday Tehran had ruled out sending any low-enriched uranium abroad but would consider a simultaneous fuel swap inside the country, a report said.

ISNA news agency quoted Mottaki as saying that a UN-backed proposal which would have seen Tehran's stocks of low-enriched uranium sent out the country for further enrichment was not feasible.

"We reviewed it... from an economic and technical aspect. We will definitely not send out our 3.5 percent enriched uranium," Mottaki said.

"It means that we will (instead) consider swapping the (nuclear) fuel simultaneously in Iran," he added.

Under the UN-backed deal, Iran would have relied on Russia and France to process low-enriched uranium to fuel a Tehran reactor that makes medical isotopes.

AFP

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