Tehran's latest stance on the high-profile proposal came as close ally Moscow and London urged the Islamic republic to accept the offer which aims at applying the brakes on Iran's galloping nuclear programme.

"We are ready to buy the fuel from any supplier under the full surveillance of the IAEA, as we bought from Argentina about 20 years ago with the cooperation of the IAEA," Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Tehran's envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) told AFP in Vienna.

Soltanieh did not clarify whether Iran was rejecting the present UN draft plan, which proposes to ship Tehran's low-enriched uranium (LEU) abroad for further processing and conversion into fuel.

World powers are backing the draft as they fear Tehran could enrich its stock of LEU to very high levels under the pretext of making fuel for a Tehran reactor, and use it to produce atomic weapons. Tehran denies these charges.

Soltanieh insisted Tehran prefers to buy the fuel but said its key aim is to obtain guaranteed supplies. Iran is ready for another meeting in Vienna to discuss the technical details, he said.

"We expect that like any other country, we will be able to buy and pay for it without any other condition, under the IAEA full scope safeguards of course," he said.

"The core issue is the assurance and guarantee of the supply of the fuel, bearing in mind the past confidence deficits where we did not receive fuel for the same reactor which we had paid for," he said.

Iran has been hesitating to sign the UN-drafted deal amid stiff opposition from some leaders who suspect the deal backed by Washington will ultimately lead to the suspension of Tehran's uranium enrichment work.

On Monday, Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, on a visit to Malaysia, called for a review of the deal, a move that could heighten tension with world powers keen to implement the offer.

"We have considered this proposal, we have some technical and economic considerations on that," Mottaki told reporters in Kuala Lumpur.

"Two days ago we passed our views and observations to the IAEA, so it is very much possible to establish a technical commission to review and reconsider all these issues," he said, referring to the IAEA.

Mottaki added Iran will "continue enrichment" of uranium for nuclear power stations requiring fuel.

Enriching uranium is the most controversial aspect of Iran's nuclear project as the material can be used as fuel for civilian reactors and also to make the core of an atomic bomb.

Mottaki said Iran still has three options to obtain the fuel it needs -- it could buy it directly from other countries, enrich the LEU further on its own, or have the fuel processed by another country.

Mohammad Ghanadi, a senior Iranian official with the country's atomic body, said that any country "can give us fuel and if not we will produce it ourselves."

Meanwhile, Britain and Russia demanded on Monday that Iran give a a prompt response to the UN-drafted deal, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said on a visit to Moscow.

"We both want to see a prompt response from the Iranian regime in respect to the Tehran research reactor proposal," Miliband said at a joint press conference with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.

Lavrov said Moscow, which is closer to Tehran than any other world power, is counting on Tehran to approve the deal which was thrashed out in Vienna with representatives of Iran, Russia, France and the United States.

"This meeting ended with an agreement ... which we are counting on all the participants, without exceptions, to approve, including Iran," Lavrov said.

The joint stance of London and Moscow comes as top Washington officials step up pressure on Iran to sign the UN-brokered proposal.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Saturday, urging Tehran to take the offer, said that world powers' patience has limits.

"Patience does have finally its limits and it is time for Iran to fulfill its obligations and responsibilities to the international community and accepting this deal would be a good beginning," she said in Jerusalem.

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