U.S. NUKE ‘BRIBE’ FOR IRANIANS

Post Wire Services

June 7, 2006 -- TEHRAN, Iran - World powers yesterday gave Iran a package of incentives that includes U.S. nuclear technology, to persuade Tehran to curb its uranium-enrichment program.

President Bush expressed optimism, telling reporters in Texas, "It sounds like a positive step to me."

Speaking on state television, top Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani used similar language to Bush, saying the initiative contains "positive steps" but also "ambiguities."

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, normally a loudmouthed hater of the United States, said over the weekend that a breakthrough was possible.

Diplomats said the package includes a provision for the United States and Europe to supply Tehran with some nuclear technology if it stops enriching uranium - a major concession by Washington.

The incentives package contains the implicit threat of U.N. sanctions if Iran remains defiant.

The sanctions would include freezing Iranian assets abroad, and an arms embargo, according to ABC News, which obtained a draft of the proposal.

The draft indicated that if Iran agrees, the world would offer it help in building reactors, a guaranteed supply of nuclear fuel and Airbus aircraft.