Iran to come up with new proposals

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would need "about a month to elaborate new proposals," he told a news conference.

Larijani was speaking after meeting UN atomic watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei.

Larijani said Iran had not ruled out further talks with the European Union even though the EU has broken off the talks to protest Iran's suspension of nuclear fuel work that could be used to make atomic weapons.

But Larijani said he felt other countries should get involved, specifically mentioning South Africa which has proposed that Iran be able to do certain nuclear fuel work.

"We consider the negotiations with the Europeans positive and still believe they can be positive," Larijani said.

He said the negotiations should not be "exclusive."

"Therefore we believe all these capacities (other countries) should be utilised," he said.

He said other countries could be negotiating alongside the Europeans or in parallel talks.

Larijani said he had good talks with ElBaradei and said Iran's "main counterpart ... is the (UN) agency" and that it was "necessary that the first negotiations would be with the agency with him," referring to ElBaradei.

He said he had discussed with ElBaradei how Iran can improve on its efforts to resolve remaining questions about its nuclear programme.