WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Monday that Iran will seek "common ground" with the United States and five other world powers that have proposed incentives for Tehran to freeze its nuclear enrichment program.
NBC News, which interviewed Ahmadinejad in Iran, also saidthe leader of the world's fourth-largest crude oil producerbelieves the oil market is overvalued in part because ofmanipulation.
Speaking less than a week before a deadline for Iran'sreply to the incentives package, Ahmadinejad told the U.S.television network that progress toward agreement with the Westwould depend on the sincerity of a shift in the U.S. approachto Tehran.
Western officials said after a meeting with Iran's chiefnuclear negotiator in Geneva on July 19 that Tehran had twoweeks to reply to an offer of a halt to new steps toward moreU.N. sanctions if Iran froze the expansion of its nuclearprogram. That would give Iran until Saturday to reply.
"They submitted a package and we responded by submittingour own package," Ahmadinejad said through an interpreter in anexcerpt of the NBC interview aired on Monday.
"It's very natural. In the first steps, we are going tonegotiate over the common ground as they exist inside the twopackages. If the two parties succeed in agreeing over thecommon ground, that will help us to work on our differences aswell, to reach an agreement."
NBC also said Ahmadinejad denied Iran was working toproduce a bomb, paraphrasing him as saying nuclear weapons areoutdated.
Iran has so far ruled out a freeze to start preliminarytalks or suspension of enrichment to start formal negotiationson the incentives package proposed by the six powers -- theUnited States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany.
In a policy shift, a U.S. diplomat attended the Genevatalks, which Iran has characterized as a success for Iran.
On Monday, Ahmadinejad told NBC: "The main question here iswhether this approach is a continuation of the old approach oris it a totally new approach.
"If this is the continuation of the old process, theIranian people need to defend their right, its interests aswell," he said. "But if the approach changes, we will be facinga new situation and the response by the Iranian people will bea positive one."
The United States has warned Iran that it will face moresanctions if it fails to meet the deadline. Washington has notruled out military action if diplomacy fails.
Asked if Iran would agree to suspend uranium enrichment inorder to gain international acceptance, Ahmadinejad said Iranalready enjoys "very good economic and cultural relations withcountries around the world."
"For the continuation of our lives and for progress, we donot need the services, if I can use the word, of a fewcountries," he said.
Ahmadinejad announced during the weekend that Iran had morethan 5,000 active centrifuges for enriching uranium, whichsuggested a rapid expansion of the nuclear work that the Westsuspects is aimed at making bombs.
Earlier this month, Iran rattled international markets bytest-firing a series of missiles.
(Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Bill Trott)
