UN nuclear chief Mohamed ElBaradei called Thursday on Tehran to declare a moratorium on expanding its uranium enrichment work in order to open the way to talks on its suspected atomic weapons program.
"It would be good if Iran today would stop building additional centrifuges and installing (them) in Natanz. I think that could be a first step toward a time-out or freeze for peace," ElBaradei told reporters, according to AFP.
ElBaradei said Iran has "no urgency in building (enrichement) capacity right now" since it did not have any nuclear power plants running. ElBaradei has proposed a "time-out" in which Iran would suspend uranium enrichment.
According to ElBaradei, a unilateral moratorium by Iran "could help at least send a right message while they continue to work with us on clarifying the outstanding issues (about their nuclear programme) and while they discuss with the Europeans the posibility for a time out."
