Sept. 12 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. and European Union called for a meeting with Iran to discuss stalled nuclear talks, brushing aside the Persian Gulf country’s failure to mention the dispute over its atomic program in a proposal for negotiations.

State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley said the U.S. wants to sit down with Iran to determine whether the concerns over Iranian aims for its nuclear work can be explored. “We will seek an early meeting, and we will seek to test Iran’s willingness to engage,” he told reporters in Washington yesterday.

The EU request for a meeting came in response to the Iranian plan to tie any discussion of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East to talks on the future of the Palestinian people and changes in the structure of the United Nations Security Council.

While Iran’s willingness to talk is welcome, “we’re not talking for talking sake,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters in Minneapolis today.

“The Iranians have responsibilities to the international community to walk away from their ballistic nuclear weapons program,” Gibbs said. “That’s what the focus from our side will be in these talks, and that’s our goal.”

Earliest Opportunity

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said European governments “are committed to meaningful negotiations with Iran” to address concerns that the country may be trying to develop a nuclear weapon. The EU is in contact with China, Russia and the U.S. to arrange a meeting “at the earliest possible opportunity,” he said yesterday in a statement.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki presented a five-page document to China, France, Germany, Russia, the U.K. and U.S. in Tehran on Sept. 9. The proposals are a response to Western concern about the atomic work, said President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who denies allegations by the U.S. and major allies that Iran’s nuclear-power development is cover for the production of weapons.

“Security requires reorganization and creating an opportunity for broad and collective participation in the management of the world,” according to the Iranian proposal. “Iran voices its readiness to embark on comprehensive, all- encompassing and constructive negotiations.”

Iranian View

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told worshippers in Tehran yesterday that Iran must “stand firm” in the nuclear dispute, saying it has the right to the technology, Agence France-Presse reported.

Iran’s nuclear development has been under UN investigation since 2003 and has prompted three sets of UN sanctions for the country’s refusal to cease production of enriched uranium, which can fuel a reactor or form the core of a bomb.

Russia is helping Iran build its first nuclear power plant, at Bushehr.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin yesterday reiterated his country’s opposition to a military strike or new economic sanctions on Iran over the nuclear program. There is no reason to believe the project has anything but peaceful ends, spokesman Dmitry Peskov cited Putin as saying.

Negotiations should commence around “political-security issues,” “international issues,” and “economic issues,” according to the Iranian document, titled Package of Proposals by the Islamic Republic of Iran for Comprehensive and Constructive Negotiations.

Resuming Diplomatic Contact

President Barack Obama has said he is ready to shelve a 30- year moratorium on normal diplomatic contact with Iran, imposed after the 1979 Islamic revolution, when 52 U.S. diplomats were held hostage in Tehran for 444 days.

Iran, with the world’s No. 2 oil and natural gas reserves, is accused by the U.S. of pursuing the means to develop nuclear weapons, supporting terrorism and interfering in neighboring Iraq. Iran denies the allegations.

In its proposal, Iran called for “joint efforts and interactions to help the people of Palestine to draw a comprehensive, democratic and equitable plan.”

Iran also seeks steps to raise UN “effectiveness on the basis of principles of democracy and justice.”

Disarmament Call

The document’s only mention of the atomic issue is in its call for “complete disarmament” and for the prevention of the “proliferation of nuclear, chemical and microbial weapons.”

Iran’s atomic work is approaching a “dangerous and destabilizing” point at which it may be able to build a bomb, Ambassador Glyn Davies, the U.S. envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency, said Sept. 9 in a statement to the Vienna- based UN agency’s 35-member board of governors.

Ahmadinejad rejected any deadlines for talks on Iran’s nuclear program on Sept. 7, saying the issue is closed and that the country won’t negotiate over its “undeniable rights.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Jonathan Tirone in Vienna at jtirone@bloomberg.net; James G. Neuger in Brussels at jneuger@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: September 12, 2009 15:07 EDT