Asked whether the EU could accept an Iranian offer to suspend uranium enrichment only for up to six months, French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier said the bloc wanted a "lasting" suspension, without specifying for how long.

"We are in an extremely intensive phase of discussions with the Tehran government and we are entering into this final phase of discussions with a certain optimism," Barnier told reporters at an EU meeting here.

Officials from EU heavyweights Britain, France and Germany are preparing for a new round of talks with Iran in Paris on Friday.

The EU has been pressing Tehran to renounce entirely uranium enrichment, which can be used to make nuclear weapons, in return for an assistance package for peaceful atomic energy.

But diplomats at the UN's nuclear watchdog in Vienna said the EU was no longer explicitly calling for an indefinite suspension to the uranium programme, in a possible compromise ahead of Friday's talks.

Iran is prepared to call a halt to its uranium enrichment activities for "up to at most six months, not more", Tehran's top nuclear negotiator Hossein Mousavian told AFP Tuesday.

Asked what Barnier meant by a "lasting" suspension, a senior French source said he meant "for as long as possible".

Speaking before Mousavian's comments, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said the international community should accept Iran's "legitimate right to use nuclear power for peaceful purposes".

But on the other hand, Iran must "stop the (uranium) fuel cycle", Fischer told reporters in Brussels.

"The negotiations continue and we hope that at the end there will be a successful outcome," he said. "If we find a way I would be very happy. If not, we are moving forward in a very serious situation."

The UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has given Iran a deadline of November 25 to allay concerns about its nuclear activities.

At this week's Paris talks, representatives from the EU trio will try to persuade Iranian officials to renounce uranium enrichment and stave off the threat of being summoned before the UN Security Council.

"I don't think it's an issue coming to a head," British Europe Minister Denis MacShane said.

"We're working very closely... with the United States, and we're working through the IAEA in Vienna to get a solution that I think the entire international community, from Moscow to Washington, is agreed on," he said.

Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency, took note of recent hardline statements by Iran's parliament but said: "We hope the Iranian government will give different signals."

A final decision on whether to refer Iran to the UN Security Council will be up to the IAEA, Bot said, "but we fully endorse the efforts made by the IAEA, which involves full suspension of all enrichment activities".

However, diplomats at IAEA headquarters in Vienna said the EU had now adopted a softer line that stops short of demanding full and permanent suspension of the activities.

EU foreign affairs chief Javier Solana said contacts with Iran had been "progressively more constructive as time goes on", and did not rule out top-level talks between the EU and Tehran after Friday's meeting of aides.

"Having a meeting at a higher level will be necessary to have a real breakthrough," he said.

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