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Iran says Bush sanctions warning 'unacceptable' Iran dismissed on Wednesday a warning by US President George W. Bush of stronger sanctions if Tehran does not bow to international demands over its nuclear program. "Bush's language is not acceptable and does not fit in with our cooperation with Europe," foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi was quoted as saying by official news agency IRNA. On Monday, Bush turned up the pressure on Tehran, warning of "progressively stronger political and economic sanctions" if it refuses to freeze sensitive nuclear activities in return for talks. Bush signaled that suspending uranium enrichment and reprocessing was not negotiable. "If Iran's leaders want peace and prosperity and a more hopeful future for their people, they should accept our offer, abandon any ambitions to obtain nuclear weapons, and come into compliance with their international obligations," Bush said. A suspension of enrichment is a non-negotiable precondition in a proposal from the five permanent UN Security Council members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- plus Germany. The offer, presented to Iran on June 6, involves incentives and multilateral talks if Iran agrees to temporarily halt the sensitive nuclear activity and cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency. Asefi denied Tehran had been set a deadline to respond to the offer. "Europe, in a correct move and with understanding of Iran's mentality, has not set any deadline in its proposal," Asefi said. "Even if there was a deadline in the proposal, the Islamic republic would have not accepted it." In Vienna however, diplomats have said that EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana told Iran that world powers expected an answer to their offer by June 29, although others said the timing remained flexible. "Expert work is being carried out in specialised committees and good progress has been made. But there cannot be any time predicted for the submission of our response," Asefi said. ---------------------------------------------------
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