Iran was weighing an international offer of incentives if it agrees to suspend uranium enrichment, with officials neither rejecting the offer nor indicating that they would meet the condition.

“On the nuclear question, we prefer cooperation to confrontation,” the official IRNA news agency quoted Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki as saying after EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana jetted in to make the offer.

While being offered carrots, Iran also faces the stick of robust Security Council action, including a range of possible sanctions, if it rejects the offer. Diplomats say the United States has helped sweeten the package by offering to lift certain sanctions if Iran agrees to an enrichment freeze. Washington has also agreed to join multilateral talks with Iran if it suspends, offering the prospect of the first substantive talks between the two arch enemies for 26 years.