Ahmadinejad pledges new nuclear offer

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tehran will offer a package of new proposals to the UN Security Council aimed at resolving the standoff over Iran's controversial nuclear programme. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday Tehran will offer a new package to world powers for negotiations aimed at resolving the standoff over its controversial nuclear drive."We are preparing a new package which will be ready very soon," Ahmadinejad said in a speech in the southern province of Kerman, according to the official IRNA news agency.The Fars news agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying the package "will be presented to the P5-plus-1 group," referring to UN Security Council permanent members Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States plus Germany."Iran will hold discussions based on this new package which guarantees peace and justice in the world," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying.He said the package was a new version of one offered in May 2008, which Iran described as an all-embracing attempt to solve the world's problems, and which suggested setting up consortiums -- including one in Iran -- to enrich uranium and manufacture nuclear fuel.The 2008 package was offered after global powers proposed economic incentives to help Iran's civilian nuclear programme in return for a halt to enrichment activities.Uranium enrichment is a process which makes nuclear fuel as well as the core of an atom bomb, and the West fears Iran is secretly trying to build nuclear weapons -- a charge persistently denied by Tehran.Iran's top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili said on Monday that Tehran was ready to talk with the P5-plus-1 to resolve the long-running deadlock.