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Published September 26, 2014

Oct. 26, 2010: Iranian workers stand in front of the Bushehr nuclear power plant, about 1,200 km south of Tehran. (Reuters)

The United States is considering softening demands that Iran scales back its uranium enrichment program, instead agreeing to a new proposal that would allow Tehran to keep almost half of the program intact, diplomats say.

The initiative, reported late Thursday by The Associated Press, comes as Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has sought to leverage the crisis in the Middle East to ease sanctions on his country as part of nuclear talks, suggesting in a United Nations address that security cooperation between Iran and other countries could only occur if they struck a favorable nuclear deal.

While focusing in large part on Islamic extremists in the region, Rouhani made clear Irans cooperation in addressing these threats hinges on the outcome of ongoing nuclear talks as he once again urged other nations to drop what he described as excessive demands.

The U.S., fearing Tehran may enrich to weapons-grade level used to arm nuclear warheads, ideally wants no more than 1,500 centrifuges left operating. Iran insists it wants to use the technology only to make reactor fuel and for other peaceful purposes and insists it be allowed to run at least the present 9,400 machines.

The tentative new U.S. offer attempts to meet the Iranians close to half way on numbers, diplomats told The Associated Press. They said it envisages letting Iran keep up to 4,500 centrifuges but would reduce the stock of uranium gas fed into the machines to the point where it would take more than a year of enriching to create enough material for a nuclear warhead.

That, they said, would give the international community enough lead time to react to any such attempt.

Rouhani said a deal could mark the beginning of multilateral cooperation and allow for greater focus on some very important regional issues such as combating violence and extremism.

Iran insists it does not want atomic arms but the West is only willing to lift nuclear-related sanctions if Tehran agrees to substantially shrink enrichment and other activities that Iran could turn toward making such weapons.

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US considers softening demands on Iran nuke deal, report says