Iran ready for uranium swap in its soil but not insisting on it: FM

TEHRAN, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Monday that Iran is ready for the uranium swap in its soil but is not insisting on it, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Iran on Monday reaffirmed commitment to a stage-by-stage uranium swap in its southern Kish island to secure fuel supply for Tehran medical research reactor, the report said.

"It proves Iran's sincerity and it should be regarded as a suitable opportunity for the other side," Mottaki said in a joint press conference with his visiting Azeri counterpart Elmar Mammadyarov in Tehran.

"We do not insist on our proposal but we only wanted to create an opportunity to secure fuel supply for Tehran medical reactor," he was quoted as saying.

It was one step forward to prove our goodwill and a suitable opportunity for them (the West).

Iran has been urged to respond to a draft deal brokered by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) former Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei, which called for shipping some 70 percent of Iran's enriched uranium abroad where the low-enriched uranium would be processed into fuel rods with a purity of 20 percent to supply a research reactor in Tehran.

Western powers suspect Iran of attempting to build nuclear weapons, but Tehran has said its nuclear program is only for civilian purposes.