PARIS, August 5, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The nuclear standoff between Iran and Europe's big three came to a dangerous point Friday, August 5, with Iran saying it will respond to a compensation package from Europe, the atomic watchdog calling for a meeting Tuesday on the thorny issue and France threatening on "an international crisis".

Calling on the international community to be "firm", French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said Friday "the world will face a major international crisis" if Iran rejects European proposals aimed at ensuring it cannot develop a nuclear arsenal.

"We must be very firm" in demanding that Iran responds favorably to the proposals it received earlier Friday from European Union negotiators France, Britain and Germany, Douste-Blazy said, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Only acceptance by Tehran of the security and nuclear cooperation guarantees made in the offer could avert the issue being brought to the International Atomic Energy Agency and from there to the UN Security Council, he said.

The issue heated up earlier Friday after the European Union submitted a package of proposals aimed at ending the long-running standoff over Iran's nuclear program, days after Tehran threatened to resume sensitive nuclear fuel cycle work.

Iran said it would respond within a couple of days to the offer transmitted by the ambassadors of Britain, France and Germany, the EU-3 which has been negotiating with Iran to seek guarantees that its nuclear program is peaceful.

"We will give ourselves one or two days to examine the European proposals and we will make a decision," foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said on state television.

According to AFP, citing diplomats, the European offer to Iran recognizes the Islamic Republic's right to nuclear energy but not to making atomic fuel with possible weapons use.

The European Union says it "respects Iran's rights under the (nuclear) Non-Proliferation Treaty for the peaceful use of nuclear energy," a diplomat at the UN atomic agency in Vienna told AFP in summarizing the report.

But the diplomat, who is following the EU-Iran talks, said the EU proposal rules out Iran being able to make the highly enriched uranium and reprocessed plutonium which are fuel for civilian nuclear power plants but can also be use to make atom bombs.

"A lot of the whole issue resolves around fuel and access to fuel," said a second diplomat, who read under strict confidentiality part of the report to AFP.

The diplomat described the 30-page text as a "comprehensive package."

"If Iran ends up not accepting (the proposals) then the matter will have to go to the Security Council," Douste-Blazy said.

Within the same context, an extraordinary meeting of the IAEA's board of governors is scheduled for next Tuesday to discuss Iran's threats to resume uranium ore conversion, in violation of an agreement to suspend all nuclear activities in exchange for the offers made Friday.

The meeting "is to ask the whole of the international community to tell Iran one last time that it has to choose the path of reason," Douste-Blazy said.

"If Iran ends up not accepting (the proposals) then the matter will have to go to the Security Council and that could effectively be the start of a major international crisis," he said.

"A meeting of the IAEA board of governors has been called for Tuesday, August 9, at 10:30 am (0830 GMT) at the request of Britain, France and Germany," IAEA spokesman Peter Rickwood said.

The Vienna-based IAEA could refer Iran to the United Nations Security Council for possible sanctions but diplomats from the European trio said the purpose of a meeting was to warn off the Iranians from their announced intention to resume fuel cycle work that could be related to nuclear weapons development.

One diplomat added, however, that "this might be a meeting where something else happens," a reference to Iran presenting the IAEA with a fait accompli of having already started uranium conversion, a first step in enriching uranium.

Further detailing the EU offer, French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Cecile Pozzo di Borgo said the propositions were made "so as to take into account the points raised by the Iranians during the negotiations" and "constitute a global offer."

She added they covered the areas of politics and security, the Iranian civilian nuclear program, and economic and technological cooperation.

"A high-level committee will be tasked" with following the issues of cooperation in non-proliferation, regional security, terrorism and combating drug-trafficking, she said.

"Iran can have access to civilian nuclear technologies within the framework of international tenders," Pozzo di Borgo added.

"It can have continued access to the international nuclear energy market and benefit from cooperation in this area. The Europeans guarantee the durable supply to Iran of nuclear fuel for its power stations.

"Also, the Europeans have expressed their readiness to put in place a framework for providing additional guarantees on the issue of fuel supply."

Pozzo di Borgo said that cooperation "implies Iran's engagement in respecting confidence-building mechanisms" and it immediately complying with and ratifying an additional International Atomic Energy Agency protocol, and working with the IAEA "to resolve all outstanding issues."

"The Europeans recognize the importance of energy cooperation and are ready to consider Iran as a source of long-term energy supply," she added.

Consequently, the European Union pledges to promote trade, investment and technology transfers, to work towards an EU-Iran trade and cooperation agreement, and "to provide political support for Iran's accession to the WTO (World Trade Organization)."

It also promises to develop long-term scientific and technological cooperation in various areas, as well as helping with communications, education and training, transport, tourism and seismology.

Progress under the agreement would be reviewed every 10 years at ministerial level, the spokeswoman said.