World powers may be ready to consider Tehran's enrichment program

The United States, Russia, China and the European Union are for the first time ready to listen to an Iranian proposal that would allow Tehran to keep some of its uranium enrichment program intact instead of mothballing it completely, government officials said Tuesday.

Speaking on the eve of talks between top Iranian envoy Ali Larijani and Javier Solana, the European Union's foreign policy chief, the officials - some of them diplomats, others based in their capitals - said the discussions were key because for the first time they could try to sidestep the deadlock over enrichment by trying to agree on a new way of defining enrichment. (AP)