France urges Iran to scrap nuclear program to avoid new sanctions

In an interview with Ekho Moskvy radio, Bernard Kouchner said he had met with Iranian representatives last week and his impression was that "the Iranians are reluctant to discuss the nuclear issue" and that they could be pursuing a military program.

Nevertheless, he said "we hope to avoid sanctions against Iran."

"At this stage we are only talking about sanctions and hope that Iran will abandon its military program," said Kouchner, who is in Moscow to attend a meeting of the Russian-French security cooperation council.

Western powers suspect Iran of attempting to build nuclear weapons. Tehran says its nuclear program is aimed at generating peaceful civilian energy.

The Iran-6 group of international mediators (Russia, Britain, China, France, Germany and the U.S.) is to meet in Geneva later on Thursday for talks with Tehran; Kazinform cites RIA Novosti. See www.en.rian.ru for full version.