TEHRAN – The major powers should not cross “red lines” in preparing a package of incentives meant to end Iran’s nuclear standoff with the West, Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki said on Saturday in an indirect reference to the calls for Tehran to freeze its nuclear enrichment program.

The five veto-wielding members of the UN Security Council and Germany met in London on Friday and agreed on a repackaged offer of incentives to try to ease a long-running standoff with Tehran but did not disclose the details of the proposal.
Mottaki said he recently held talks with British Secretary for Foreign Affairs David Miliband in Kuwait on the sidelines of a ministerial meeting of Iraq’s neighbors and Western powers.
“Miliband said the 5+1 (group) will meet in London on May 2 and they plan to write a letter to Iran (on new incentives),” Mottaki told reporters at a news conference with his Yemeni counterpart Abu Bakr Abdallah al-Qirbi.
“I told him that you know the forbidden word ... Be careful not to pass these red lines,” He added.
The Islamic Republic has in the past dismissed as a “red line” the world powers’ demands that Iran suspends uranium enrichment, saying it has the right to utilize civilian nuclear technology to generate electricity for a rising population.
Iran had earlier rejected a package of incentives offered by big powers in return for Tehran’s total suspension of uranium enrichment.
Asked whether Iran would refuse the new offer, the foreign minister said, “We have not received any letter about this.”
Iran is also preparing its own “package of proposals” in a bid to help minimize nuclear threats and prevent the proliferation of atomic arms around the world, chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili said on April 28 after discussing the plan with a visiting Russian delegation.
The package proposes negotiation over political, security, and economic issues as well as activities that have the potential to threaten global security by violating international law such as certain nuclear efforts that are in breach of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, Jalili added.
“After a careful study of regional and extra-regional events and crises, Iran decided to prepare a package of proposals to create an opportunity for constructive talks on resolving those problems,” Mottaki stated.
----------------Powers want Iran to suspend enrichment during talks: Russia
World powers want Tehran to suspend uranium enrichment during a negotiation period, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted as saying Saturday.
""Our first conditions are the freezing, suspension of uranium enrichment. The approach of the six (powers) is that Iran should suspend enrichment only for the period in which talks continue,"" Lavrov told Interfax and ITAR-TASS news agencies.
Lavrov, speaking after talks in London among the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany, said there had been no discussion of imposing new sanctions on Iran.
""There wasn't anything about new sanctions although our American colleagues take the view that pressure on Iran must be maintained.
""It's necessary to explain to Iran the advantages it would receive from agreeing to start talks, on the basis of one condition -- the freezing of uranium enrichment,"" Lavrov said as carried by AFP.
As a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Iran has legitimate right to enrich uranium for civilian purposes.
He added that the parties meeting in London had discussed earlier proposals put forward by Iran encompassing nuclear energy, trade and investment and regional security issues