Iran says near unity with EU in some nuclear areas

ANKARA, Apr 26 (Reuters): Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani said today Iran and the EU were nearing "a united view" in some areas of their talks to break an international impasse over Tehran's nuclear fuel programme.

European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said the talks had been constructive and conducted in a good atmosphere, though no "great breakthrough" was on the cards now.

Larijani and Solana spoke at a news conference in Turkey's capital before resuming discussions, which ended in the early afternoon.

They are to reconvene in two weeks' time.

The United States and other Western powers suspect Iran has a secret nuclear arms programme, and UN sanctions have been imposed on Tehran.

Iran says its drive to produce uranium fuel is for electricity only and is vital to economic development.

"In some areas we are approaching a united view.

That is to say that the best approach is to settle all the issues through negotiations based on law and international rules and regulations," Larijani said.

He and Solana did not go into the substance of their two-day talks, their first for more than two months.

The core dispute is Iran's refusal to suspend any part of efforts to enrich uranium against a UN demand that it halt all such activity to win a suspension of sanctions against it and launch negotiations leading to trade benefits on offer to Iran.

Some diplomats and analysts have said Iran and six world powers handling Iran's nuclear file could eventually accept a partial enrichment suspension under strict UN inspections to break the deadlock.

But both sides have publicly denied this.

Asked if he and Larijani discussed a limited suspension as a compromise to enable negotiations, Solana told reporters: "We didn't enter any specific discussions of that nature.

We have moved on in general terms.

Some progress has been made.

As you know, the situation is difficult." A British Foreign Office spokesman said: "The Security Council resolution has said Iran needs to suspend enrichment activities.

Solana won't be making any fresh offers.

The conversation is more about the mechanics of getting back into talks." Larijani and Solana suggested progress was made in reconciling what Iran calls its drive for peaceful nuclear energy with the fear of world powers that Tehran has a clandestine agenda to assemble atomic bombs.

"International Atomic Energy Agency inspections should remain in place and the Non-Proliferation Treaty should prevail.

These are good frameworks serving as focal points of unity in both sides' views," Larijani said, as translated from Farsi.

Diplomats say the key to a breakthrough is finding a definition of an enrichment suspension both sides could stomach.

This could, for example, mean suspending uranium fuel production but exempting the building or testing of centrifuge machines.

European officials say such compromises could be struck in the future, but only after Iran suspends enrichment activity.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has proclaimed Iran's ability to enrich on "industrial scale", but analysts say it remains at test level.

Larijani had said "irrational" Western preconditions - a reference to UN Security Council calls for shelving all enrichment activity - had thwarted diplomatic efforts to head off what some fear could be a slide into US-Iranian conflict.

Despite the positive signs in Ankara, senior officials in Tehran said Iran would strike US interests around the world and Israel if attacked over its nuclear programme.

Hasina prepares to return home, demands early polls LONDON, Apr 26 (Agencies): As she prepared to return home, former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has demanded early elections which her Awami League party will fight to establish a secular democracy, rejecting "any kind of extremism".

The 60-year-old daughter of Bangladesh's founder leader Sheikh Mujibur Rehman attributed yesterday's decision of the military-backed caretaker government to lift the ban on her entry to the " tremendous national and international pressure".

She had been prevented from boarding a British Airways flight from London to Dhaka on Sunday last at the instance of the Bangladesh government.

"t is the pressure of the people at home and the role of media at home and abroad that forced them(caretaker government).

There was tremendous national and international pressure and because of the pressure they had to withdraw(the ban)," she said.

Hasina also said it was her will-power and determination to return to her motherland which prevailed upon the caretaker government to reverse its decision.

"They thought I will wilt under pressure but they were mistaken," said Hasina, who had faced a grenade attack on her life.

The Awami League Chief, during whose tenure as Prime Minister between 1996 to 2001 the Indo-Bangladesh treaty for sharing of the Ganges river waters was signed, disclosed that External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee had spoken to her over phone.

The Indian High Commissioner to the U.K Kamalesh Sharma had also met her.

About her political beliefs, Hasina said "We believe in secular democracy and we do not encourage any kind of extremism.

Rather we are victims of terrorism.

21,000 of my people were killed and more than one lakh women including six-year-old girls raped.

I survived a grenade attack in which 24 people were killed." Suspended CJ alleges harassment during meeting with Prez ISLAMABAD, Apr 26 (Agencies): Pakistan's suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar M Chaudhry has alleged that he was harassed and insulted during a meeting with President Pervez Musharraf here last month after he refused to resign.

"The officials of the referring authority (President) thereupon also placed physical restraints on the petitioner preventing him from leaving his office till 5 pm" on March nine, Chaudhry, who was suspended by Musharraf last month for his alleged misconduct and misuse of power, said in his petition before the Supreme Court.

"When it became evident that he could not be persuaded to resign then by an order of the same date (March 9, 2007) the referring authority (the President) purportedly restrained the petitioner from performing the functions of judge of the Supreme Court and Chief Justice of Pakistan," details of the petition carried by the media here today said.

In his 40-page petition, which has been referred to a larger bench to the apex court, Chaudhry said Musharraf "summoned" him in the presence of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and referred "baseless charges" levelled by a lawyer named Naeem Bukhari.

"And (they) gave the petitioner the option and indeed fervently persuaded him to resign.

All manner of offers were also made," the petition said.

Chaudhry said "the President was most upset when the petitioner refused to resign.

All these harassment and insult continued against the petitioner while those who might have played any illegal role in the commission of the alleged acts attributed to the petitioner in the reference were at liberty, serving in their jobs and facing no disciplinary inquiry or suspension." About the reference of allegations of misconduct and misuse of authority, Chaudhry alleged that his suspension by Musharraf was to "humble, humiliate, subjugate and thus render the judicial organ of the state completely subservient, especially at a time when the organ was just beginning to assert its constitutional authority by giving relief to the common man." Chaudhry also warned the court that if his petition was regarded as "incompetent or not deserving relief," it would amount to a "judicial suicide." "In that case, this court will have to accept that each one of its judges, as well as judges of the High Courts, are subject, at the whim and fancy of the executive, to a reference coupled with simultaneous suspension," he said.

Chaudhry also alleged in his petition that the Prime Minister himself was opposed to him because he passed a judgement against the privatisation of Pakistan Steel Mills, which tarnished Aziz's image badly.

"The Prime Minister on whose advice the reference was filed was himself found, in a judgement (Pakistan Steel Mills privatisation case) authored by the petitioner, to have been engaged in some serious omissions and commissions," he said.

As a result of the judgement, Aziz had to face a no-confidence motion in the National Assembly while the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) failed to take any action against the Prime Minister on such serious findings of wrongdoings amounting to billions of rupees, Chaudhry charged.

"How can a reference that has been filed on the advice of such a Prime Minister to seek removal of the author of that judgement be seen otherwise than mala fide, especially when an application seeking review of that judgement is pending before this court," Chaudhry said in his petition.

Countries with more nukes should act for disarmament: Kalam ATHENS, Apr 26 (Agencies): India favours complete nuclear disarmament but the initiative has to come from "institutions and countries" having a large number of atomic warheads, President A P J Abdul Kalam said here today.

Talking to reporters after one-to-one and delegation- level talks with his Greek counterpart Karolos Papoulias, Kalam said India stood for nuclear non-proliferation and its atomic programme was for peaceful purposes.

"As far as India is concerned, our nuclear policy is based on two foundations - total disarmament and no first use," Kalam said in response to a question on whether the two leaders discussed the nuclear issue and the standoff over Iran's nuclear programme.

"But the initiative for total disarmament has to come from institutions and countries who have a large number of nuclear warheads." India's nuclear programme, Kalam said, was to help in power generation, agriculture and medicines.

Referring to the Iran's nuclear programme, he said it should be for peaceful purposes like nuclear energy and medical technology.

India should liberalise trade with China: Montek BEIJING, Apr 26 (Agencies): India must further liberalise trade ties with China, especially on the border trade front, as the two Asian giants are marching forward to be among the top world economies, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia said today.

"I am in favour of generally multilaterally liberalising trade and I think the rest of the world is moving towards doing that in a parallel track.

We have a regional trade agreement with ASEAN.

I think we should have a similar agreement with China, details of course will have to be worked out," Ahluwalia told Indian journalists here.

"I am very much in favour of very urgent liberalisation of border trade with China.

So whatever we can do there, we should do.

I know that there are details that have to be worked out on both sides," he said before winding up his two-day visit to understand the dynamics of the rising Communist giant.

Ahluwalia's support for enhanced border trade comes amid concerns in some quarters in New Delhi that liberalisation of border trade with China would result in flooding of Indian market with cheap Chinese goods which could threaten the Indian manufacturing sector.

Allaying such fears, Ahluwalia noted that most Chinese goods are now available in India and that the discerning Indian consumers have firmed up their minds.

"Chinese products are now available in India and People have learned to distinguish the products that are of good quality and those are purely price competitive.

I think the presence of good quality products will evoke a competitive quality response," Ahluwalia said.

"There is no doubt in my mind that India and China are the two fastest growing developing countries, China ahead of India, but India definitely catching up.

Frankly, 30 years from now, according to many reports, we will be in the top three - China, USA and India," he said after holding talks with Zhu Zhixin, Vice Chairman of National Development Reform Commission (NDRC), China's top planning body.

"It is inconceivable in a globalised world that the largest economy and may be the third largest economy won't have a lot to do with each other.

So we should count on that and we should build towards it," Ahluwalia said while supporting a regular system of consultations between New Delhi and Beijing.

He said his meeting with Zhu was aimed at finding out what China was doing on the energy-related issues, especially on the Kyoto Protocol.

"We had a general discussion and we obviously have a shared interest.

It wasn't meant to coordinate an actual negotiating position but to get a sense of how they (China) view these things," he said.

"We have been taking to Chinese about institutionalising the dialogues for some time and I have suggested to them we should have a regular system of consultations, may be we meet once a year and they are going to consider that," he said.

Ahluwalia said he was deeply impressed by China's experiences and India would draw lessons so that the country could try and improve the 11th Five Year Plan, which is in the process of being drawn up.

US House votes for pullout of troops from Iraq WASHINGTON, Apr 26 (Agencies): Setting the stage for a major showdown with the White House, the House of Representatives has passed a Democrats-backed war spending bill, which sets a timetable for withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, and the Senate is expected to follow suit.

Brushing aside a threat by President George W Bush to veto the bill, the House late last night passed it by a 218-208 vote, which was preceded by mounting rhetoric and even exchange of insults by Democrats and Republicans.

The Senate is also expected to pass the USD 124 billion war spending bill along party lines despite the pleas of the top American military commander in Iraq, Gen David Petraeus, who gave closed door presentations of the ongoing operations in Baghdad to lawmakers until late last evening.

The Democrats, who dominate the Congress, hope to send the legislation to the White House on Monday-exactly four years after President Bush declared that major combat operations had ended in Iraq.

"How many more suicide bombs must kill American soldiers before this president offers a timeline for our troops to come home?" asked lawmaker Patrick J.

Murphy, an Iraq war veteran who lost nine fellow paratroopers this week in one of the deadliest attacks in Iraq.

"How many more military leaders must declare the war will not be won militarily before this president demands that the Iraqis stand up and fight for their country? How many more terrorists will President Bush's foreign policy breed before he focuses a new strategy, a real strategy? "This bill says enough is enough," Murphy said.

The voting was mostly along party lines with only 13 House Democrats opposing the Bill and two Republicans voting for the legislation.

The White House, which has insisted that there should be no conditions attached to the war funding, said the Bill tells the enemy "we have surrendered".

"Tonight, the House of Representatives votes for failure in Iraq, and the President will veto its bill," White House Deputy Press Secretary Dana Perino said in a statement.

"It says, you must leave on this day and we think that tells the enemy that they have won and that we have surrendered." The legislation has set requirements for resting, training and equipping troops but would grant the President the authority to waive those restrictions, provided he publicly justifies the waivers.

The Bill also sets benchmarks for the government in Baghdad to meet like creating a programme for the disarming of the militias and approve a law on sharing oil revenue.

The Bush administration must make a determination by July one that the benchmarks are being met or else the troops will start coming home, the goal being the withdrawal will be complete by the end of the year.

But if the benchmarks are being met troops would begin coming home no later than October one, with a goal of completing the troop pullout by April 1,2008.

But some American forces will remain to protect US facilities and diplomats, pursue terrorist organizations, and train and equip Iraqi security forces.

The White House veto is expected but liberal anti-war groups led by Democrats in the Congress are planning major rallies and signature campaigns across the country as soon as Bush vetoes the legislation.