Sept. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said his government would initiate a new ``partnership'' with companies and other nations to create confidence that its nuclear program won't lead to development of atomic weapons.

``As a further confidence-building measure and in order to provide the greatest degree of transparency, the Islamic Republic of Iran is prepared to engage in serious partnership with private and public sectors of other countries in the implementation of uranium enrichment,'' Ahmadinejad said in a speech today to the UN General Assembly in New York.

Ahmadinejad, who called the announcement a ``far-reaching step'' to inspire confidence in his nation's peaceful intentions, also said Iran would continue talks with the U.K., France and Germany on the issue. He called on the UN General Assembly to establish a committee to study ways to achieve total nuclear weapons disarmament, while saying Iran would cooperate with the world body's Vienna-based nuclear watchdog agency.

At the same time, Ahmadinejad said Iran would continue a program of nuclear enrichment for peaceful energy production.

``Nuclear power plants can indeed lead to total dependence of countries and peoples if they need to rely for their fuel on coercive powers, who do not refrain from any measure in furtherance of their interest,'' he said. ``No popularly elected and responsible government can consider such a situation. The history of dependence on oil in oil-rich countries under domination is an experiment that no independent country is willing to repeat.''

Rice on Iran

Earlier in a speech to the General Assembly, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Iran's nuclear program should be referred to the UN Security Council if diplomacy fails.

``When diplomacy has been exhausted, the Security Council must become involved,'' Rice said.

She urged Iran to return to the European-led negotiations that are aimed at persuading Iran to abandon what the U.S. and Europeans suspect is a covert nuclear weapons program.

``Iran should return to the negotiations with the EU-3 and abandon forever its plans for a nuclear weapons capability,'' Rice said.

The U.S., which says Iran is using its nuclear-energy program to disguise work to produce weapons, is trying to gain support from Russia, India and China for UN sanctions against the Mideast country.

Talks led by Germany, France and the U.S. broke down after Iran resumed uranium processing Aug. 5, ending a suspension agreed to with the EU in November.

Referral Issue

A decision on whether to refer the issue to the Security Council may come Sept. 19 when the board of governors of the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, meets in Vienna.

U.K. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told reporters yesterday that the EU was trying to avoid such an outcome.

``We've made detailed proposals for the relationship between the European Union and Iran to be based on cooperation and respect to international norms and treaties,'' Straw said in his speech today to the General Assembly.

``Our proposals envisage a high level, long term security framework between the EU and Iran in which we work together in political, economic, scientific and technological areas, including the civil nuclear field in return for Iran providing guarantees about its intentions and capabilities concerning nuclear weapons,'' he said.

To contact the reporters on this story: Janine Zacharia at the United Nations at jzacharia@bloomberg.net and Bill Varner at the United Nations at wvarner@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: September 17, 2005 16:21 EDT