Stop threats then we'll talk, Iran tells West

Iran on Sunday told the West it would only hold talks over its disputed nuclear programme if world powers stopped threatening further punitive measures against Tehran.

"The time of using the policy of the carrot and the stick has ended," Javad Vaeedi, a top national security official, said on the sidelines of a security conference in Tehran.

"If they (the West) want to have serious negotiations, in fair conditions and taking into account the interests of the two parties, they must first stop threatening."

His comments came a week after the UN Security Council tightened sanctions against Tehran over its refusal to heed the world body's calls to freeze uranium enrichment, a potential weapons-making process.

Following the sanctions resolution, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rejected any new talks with the European Union's foreign policy chief Javier Solana -- who has represented world powers in past discussions on the nuclear crisis.

Ahmadinejad said Tehran would in future negotiate only with the UN atomic agency and would not sit down with anyone from outside the body, such as Solana, who has held two years of nuclear talks with Iran.

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