British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw suggested Thursday that the agreement with regard to Iran's nuclear programme was a good example of the future cooperation to achieve a common EU foreign policy as proposed by the UK, IRNA reported from London.

"What we are doing in Iran is following an agreed European foreign policy," Straw told domestic and foreign journalists at a briefing in London Thursday.

"It is a good illustration of where sovereign states are perfectly entitled to run their own separate foreign policy, as they are now, and will be under any conceivable constitutional treaty," he said.

The Foreign Secretary said, "EU can work better coming together with a common position, as we have done in the European Union and then have three of the major countries - France, Germany and ourselves - seeking to implement it."

"We have effectively agreed through the European Union, through the discussion we had in Tehran on October 20, and in the IAEA Board on November 26, an agenda in respect of the nuclear dossier," he said.

Straw said there were separate discussions with Iran over trade and cooperation and human rights and these are kept under review as EU foreign ministers did during their meeting in Brussels last Monday.

He declined to directly answer that it was the hope of the UK to assist Iran in developing its nuclear programme following Tehran signing the additional protocol of the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Last week, Straw told the parliamentary Foreign Affairs Select Committee that he believed Iran would continue to meet its obligations on its civil nuclear programme following his visit to Tehran with his French and German counterparts.

He also confirmed that if Iran continued to cooperate with Europe, looked forward to supplying technology to the country's industry, including the civil nuclear programme, which was part of the agreement.

... Payvand News - 12/12/03 ... --