VIENNA, (Reuters) – Iran ignored a U.N. deadline yesterday to respond to an international draft deal for it to cut  an atomic stockpile the West fears could be used for weapons,  and challenged the basis of the pact. 

Iranian officials said they would give an answer only next  week to the U.N.-drafted deal, which has been accepted by the  other parties — Russia, France and the United States.  

They also said Tehran preferred to acquire enriched uranium  abroad rather than send out its own for processing into fuel for  nuclear medicine, as Western powers said it tentatively agreed  to at Geneva talks on Oct. 1 on ways to defuse growing  confrontation over its disputed atomic aspirations.  

Their remarks suggested that instead of engaging with the  IAEA’s draft, Iran was following a well-tested strategy of  buying time to blunt Western pressure for harsher international  sanctions while it presses on with nuclear research.  

The U.N. nuclear agency said it had been told by Iran that  it was considering the proposal “in depth and in a favourable  light”, but needed until the middle of next week to take a  position — flouting the IAEA’s Friday deadline for responses.  

It said International Atomic Energy Agency Director General  Mohamed ElBaradei hoped Iran’s reply “will equally be positive,  since approval of this agreement will signal a new era of  cooperation” after seven years of standoff.  

The IAEA did not say why Iran required more time to decide.  

It would require the Islamic Republic, whose nuclear secrecy  and restrictions on IAEA inspections have raised alarm, to send  1.2 tonnes of its known 1.5-tonne stockpile of low-enriched  uranium (LEU) to Russia and France by the end of the year.  

There it would be further processed, in a way that would  make it hard to use for warheads, and returned to Iran as fuel  plates to power a Tehran reactor that makes radioactive medical  isotopes but is due to run out of its imported fuel in a year.  

The deal would test Iran’s stated intention to use enriched  uranium only for peaceful energy.  

It would also gain time for broader talks on world powers’  ultimate goal: that Iran allay fears that it has a secret  nuclear weapons programme by curbing enrichment, in return for  trade and technology benefits.  

But the stance taken by Iranian officials could call into  question plans to resume talks at the end of October and offered  little to douse fears of a nuclear “breakout” risk in Iran.  

Underscoring concerns, senior IAEA inspectors prepared to  head for Iran to examine an enrichment site on Sunday revealed  by Tehran last month after Western spy services penetrated a  three-year veil of secrecy. They were expected to stay 2-3 days.  

Buying enriched uranium abroad would not only fail to reduce  the domestic stockpile worrying the international community, but  also require sanctions imposed on Iran since 2006 to be waived  to allow it to import such sensitive nuclear material.  

“Iran is interested in buying fuel for the Tehran research  reactor within the framework of a clear proposal,” Iranian state  television quoted a member of Iran’s negotiating team, who  attended nuclear talks in Vienna this week, as saying.  

“We are waiting for the other party’s constructive and trust-building res-ponse.”