The Bulgarian Post
2006-09-04 09:50:23

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Monday stressed the need to avoid a confrontation with Iran over its nuclear ambitions, a day after Tehran told him it was determined to negotiate an end to its standoff with the West.

This is not the time for anyone to take independent decisions," Annan told reporters in Doha, his latest stop in a Middle East tour.

"We want to avoid confrontation. Confrontation is not in the interest of anyone in the region or in the international community."

Annan has been touring the region for a week to shore up a ceasefire that halted more than a month of fighting between Israel and Lebanese Hizbollah guerrillas.

During his visit to Tehran on Sunday, Annan said Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had "reaffirmed to me Iran's preparedness and determination to negotiate and find a solution to the (nuclear) crisis" but would not suspend enrichment.

Annan's visit came just days after Tehran failed to meet a U.N. Security Council deadline to halt sensitive nuclear work, which the United States says is aimed at producing nuclear weapons but which Tehran says is to meet energy needs.

Newspapers in Tehran reported on Monday that lawmakers had moved a step closer to approving a bill to ban inspectors from the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), from its atomic sites.

"In (Sunday's) open session of parliament, the bill for suspending the entry of IAEA inspectors was received by the presiding board and handed over to the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee for study," the daily Jomhouri-ye Eslami reported.

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