IRAN - Oct 31 - Parliament Approves Nuclear Bill.

The Parliament gives outline approval to a bill requiring the government to press on with its nuclear programme, stopping short of an earlier proposal on the immediate resumption of uranium enrichment. The bill was passed by 247 out of 290 deputies present, but its passage followed the withdrawal of an emergency resolution demanding that uranium enrichment resume, the IRNA news agency reported. The parliament's decisions leave some flexibility for Iranian negotiators who resume talks with Germany, France and Britain (EU-3), ahead of a board meeting on Nov 25 of the IAEA (IAEA), the UN nuclear watchdog. The parliamentary speaker and relative by marriage of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel said: "Defining the limits of the playing court does not mean that playing is banned". With Mohammad ElBaradei, IAEA head, expected to produce a new report on Iran in about two weeks, time is running out for Iran to meet the IAEA demand, made in September, that it suspend all aspects of uranium enrichment as a goodwill gesture. The EU-3 has warned that unless Iran complies, it will support a referral to the UN Security Council, a move promoted by the US, which argues that Tehran's nuclear activities hide a weapons programme. Two meetings with the Europeans this month in Vienna failed to produce a breakthrough. Last week, Ayatollah Khamenei ruled out any "long-term suspension" of enrichment, while leaving the door open for concessions that accepted Iran's right to peaceful nuclear technology. Iran has not enriched uranium since an accord with the EU-3 in October last year, but it has continued to convert raw uranium into feed material. Hossein Shariatmadari, editor-in-chief of the Kayhan newspaper, on Oct 31 condemned the incentive package offered to Iran by the EU-3 - including the supply of nuclear fuel and a light-water reactor - in exchange for halting enrichment. "When you see the details of the package, you realise even the carrots are sticks", wrote Shariatmadari. The US election has also cast a shadow over the talks. While some Iranian officials have privately admitted they would prefer John Kerry, the Democratic challenger, who has supported the Europeans' engagement of Iran, more strident voices in the conservative media have tarred Kerry, Pres Bush, the IAEA and the EU-3 with the same brush. "We think there are people in the Iranian leadership who would welcome going to the Security Council", said a foreign diplomat. "It keeps up a sense of confrontation they relish".