A spokesman for Iran?s Foreign Ministry said yesterday Iran had yet to suspend uranium enrichment, backtracking on his earlier statement that the process had already been suspended.

?We are discussing and examining how to suspend enrichment,? Hamid Reza Asefi told Reuters by telephone. He earlier told a news conference Iran met with foreign ministers from Britain, France and Germany on Tuesday and agreed to suspend uranium enrichment and sign up to snap inspections of nuclear sites.

Asefi described the agreement as being in the interests of Iran but said the Islamic Republic reserved the right to restart enrichment at its own discretion. The Islamic Republic was given an October 31 deadline by the UN?s nuclear watchdog to prove it is not seeking atomic weapons by granting inspectors ?unrestricted access? to nuclear sites and suspending uranium enrichment.

A member of the Expediency Council, who arbitrates between the predominantly reformist parliament and the hardline Guardian Council, was reported yesterday saying an order to suspend enrichment had been issued. Reformist President Mohammad Khatami has said Iran would do it as a gesture of goodwill. Analysts say he would never have been able to make such a move without the consent of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Iran has said it planned to enrich uranium to the low level required to fuel nuclear power stations to meet booming domestic electricity demand, not enrich it further to weapons-grade. A new team of UN inspectors are in Iran since yesterday to verify documents regarding Iran?s nuclear history handed to UN atomic watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei.

About 30 religious students gathered outside the Foreign Ministry building in Tehran to protest against what they saw as Iran?s shameful concession to international pressure.