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By Paul Hughes
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran reiterated Tuesday it was only prepared to freeze its uranium enrichment activities for a few months and would not, as the EU and Washington want, permanently mothball facilities which could make atomic bombs.
The comments, made by Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, were a further blow to European Union efforts to persuade Tehran to scrap enrichment for good and were likely to fuel U.S. concerns that Iran secretly plans to produce nuclear weapons.
Iran, which insists its nuclear program is solely for electricity generation, Monday escaped possible U.N. sanctions after agreeing to suspend all activities which could be used to make bomb-grade material.
The EU hopes Iran will make the suspension permanent in return for trade deals and other incentives. But Tehran says it will never give up its right to develop a fully-fledged nuclear program, from uranium mines to reactors.
"The length of the suspension will only be for the length of the negotiations with the Europeans and... must be rational and not too long," Hassan Rohani told a news conference.
"We're talking about months, not years," said the cleric, who is secretary-general of Iran's top security body, the Supreme National Security Council.
The United States has expressed skepticism that Iran will stick to the nuclear freeze and says it reserves the right to take Iran's case to the Security Council on its own.
"The Americans have called for Iran to be reported to the Security Council for a year and a half, now the whole world has turned down America's calls," Rohani said.
"Despite the U.S. propaganda Iran has not relinquished its right to the (nuclear) fuel cycle and it never will do," he said.
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