US plays down chances of atomic deal with Iran

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Saturday he saw no sign a deal was close between Iran and Western powers on exchanging some of its low-enriched uranium for higher-grade fuel it can use in a reactor producing medical isotopes.

"I don't have the sense that we're close to an agreement," Gates told reporters in Ankara, where he met Turkish leaders. "If they are prepared to take up the original proposal of the P-5 plus one of delivering 12,000 kilograms of their low enriched uranium, all at once to an agreed party, I think there would be a response to that. (Reuters)