Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Thursday he was open to what he called new conditions to resolve Tehran's standoff with the West over its nuclear program and believed talks could end the dispute.

The United States said on Wednesday Iran was "aggressively" pursuing the development of nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran denies. Washington said Iran should face sanctions now, but EU allies said it was not too late for a negotiated solution.

Asked whether Iran was willing to suspend uranium enrichment, Ahmadinejad reacted calmly to the U.S. statement.

The Western countries in a group of six major powers dealing with Iran appeared to differ over the urgency of sanctions in statements to the U.N. nuclear watchdog's board of governors.

A minister from Washington's staunchest ally, Britain, said Tehran probably had the resources to endure sanctions.

A meeting between European Union foreign policy head Javier Solana and Iranian negotiator Ali Larijani, set for Thursday, was postponed without reasons given. EU diplomats had said they would discuss a tentative offer by Larijani to consider temporarily halting enrichment of uranium for nuclear fuel.

Solana's spokeswoman said, however, lower-level EU and Iranian officials would still meet in Paris.

SANCTIONS ISSUE

The United States, spearheading efforts to draw up punitive U.N. sanctions against Tehran over suspicions it is secretly trying to build atomic bombs, has said it has no knowledge of any new Iranian offer.

Western leaders condemned Iran's disregard of an August 31 U.N. Security Council deadline to suspend its uranium enrichment program, which Tehran says is meant only to make electricity.

Iran refuses to suspend enrichment before negotiations on an offer by the major powers of trade incentives not to develop nuclear fuel.

Washington made clear to the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that Iran's defiance should trigger steps to sanctions but the so-called "EU3," Britain, France and Germany, omitted mention of punitive action and called for last-ditch talks despite Tehran's violation of the deadline.

"Given Iran's history of deception, lack of transparency, provocative behavior and disregard for its international obligations, we must take further steps to persuade Iran to abandon its nuclear weapons ambitions," U.S. envoy Gregory Schulte told the 35-nation IAEA board in Vienna.

"We are convinced that Iran is aggressively pursuing the technology, material and know-how to build nuclear weapons. The time has come for the (U.N.) Security Council to back international diplomacy with international sanctions," he said.

"Sanctions will not signal an end to diplomacy. (But) Iran's leaders must understand that their choices have consequences."

Three of Washington's fellow veto-holders on the Security Council, China, Russia and France, plus Germany and other EU nations are wary of cornering the world's fourth biggest oil exporter and want more time to find a diplomatic compromise.

"I can't see a military way through this and I'm not sure that even there's an easy way for the U.N. to impose sanctions," British Foreign Office Minister Kim Howells told a parliamentary committee in London.

PHOTO CAPTION

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (L) addresses reporters at Dakar airport, as Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade (C) and a translator watch September 14, 2006. (REUTERS)

(Reuters)