Iran said Sunday it had reached a preliminary deal over its disputed nuclear program with the European Union's three big powers that could avert UN Security Council sanctions. 

But EU officials said that while considerable progress was made during two days of talks in Paris, the two sides remained shy of a provisional agreement.

The Paris talks that ended late on Saturday between British, French and German officials on one side and Iranians on the other, centered on Teheran's uranium enrichment activities.

The EU trio told Iran it must freeze enrichment -- a process used to purify uranium into nuclear reactor fuel or to make bomb-grade material -- before the November 25 board meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Failure to do so could mean Iran's case would be referred to the United Nations Security Council that could impose economic sanctions.

"Negotiations were very hard and complicated but we reached a preliminary agreement on an expertise level," said Hossein Mousavian, head of Iran's delegation in Paris. "It is a framework that contains the viewpoints of all sides."

"All four delegations are supposed to go to their capitals and if the capitals agree with the agreement, it will be officially announced in the next few days," he told state television.

Iran says its atomic plants are geared solely to electricity generation and denies US accusations that they are a front for a bomb-making program.

Teheran has so far resisted demands that it scrap efforts to produce its own reactor fuel, saying it has the right to do so as a signatory of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

(China Daily November 8, 2004)