By DPA
Vienna : The United States is still standing by its offer made one year ago to change 27 years of US policy and talk to Iran if Teheran agrees to suspend its controversial nuclear programme, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday.
Speaking on the sidelines of an international women's empowerment conference in Vienna, Rice stressed that the international community was united in its demands on Iran to suspend enrichment and urged it was time for "Iran to change its tactics."
The US believes Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons under the guise of its civilian nuclear programme, a claim Teheran rejects.
"I repeat again, if Iran is prepared to take that course, then we are prepared to change 27 years of course," Rice said.
But that could not be done "while Iran continues to pursue and try to perfect technologies that are going to lead to a nuclear weapon."
Her appeal came just hours before another round of EU-Iran talks taking place in Madrid set for Thursday afternoon between European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Iranian chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani. Ahead of the meeting Larijani had reiterated that suspension was not an option.
Last week, Iran ignored another United Nations deadline to stop enrichment, paving the way to potentially harsher sanctions against the country.