Iran made the proposal to be able to run a pilot centrifuge project for enrichment at a meeting Wednesday with EU negotiators Britain, France and Germany, a European official, who asked not to be named, said.

The official said the European trio were "going to look at this with experts.

"If the experts find a way to monitor this in an effective way (to guarantee that Iran cannot enrich uranium to make nuclear weapons), then why not?" the official said.

Iran and the European trio had agreed Wednesday to continue nuclear talks after a round in Paris failed to secure an agreement persuading Tehran to abandon uranium enrichment to show it does not seek to develop atomic weapons.

Iran had threatened to break off the talks that had begun in December if Wednesday's meeting in Paris failed to make progress, a reference to European promises of trade, technology and security rewards if Iran would give up on uranium enrichment.

Enriched uranium can be used as fuel for civilian nuclear reactors but can also be the explosive core of atom bombs.

All rights reserved. © 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.