The FINANCIAL -- TEHRAN, Iran has said it is willing to send its low-enriched uranium abroad, but would require explicit guarantees from the United Nations nuclear watchdog that it will receive high-enriched uranium for its research reactor.

"If we do not receive actual guarantees we have to resort to other options," Saeed Jalili, secretary of the Iranian Supreme National Security Council, was quoted by the Iranian Labor News agency as saying.

Under a deal brokered by the International Atomic Energy Agency, designed to allay concerns over Iran's nuclear program, the Islamic Republic was offered to send low-enriched uranium abroad for reprocessing and receive nuclear fuel enriched to the 20% level required for use in its research rector.

Turkey, a neutral country in the long-running international nuclear dispute with Iran, has agreed to store Iranian uranium as an alternative to the original UN deal, under which Tehran would have sent its nuclear fuel to France and Russia.

Western powers suspect Iran of developing a nuclear program aimed at the production of an atomic weapon. Iran says the program is for the peaceful generation of energy.

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