Negotiations with Europe on Iran's nuclear programme are "complicated and difficult" but are making progress, Iranian president Mohammad Khatami said yesterday.
The United States suspects Iran of using its once-covert nuclear programme to produce weapons and wants it shut down. Tehran says its nuclear technology is only to produce electricity.
Mr Khatami said politics had hindered a solution. "If the question was not political, if it was just a legal issue, trust would exist," he said in the interview broadcast in France on I-Tele.
He said he did not think that there would be a US attack on his country.
"We must always be ready because the threats could become concrete. But practically, I don't think such an attack can happen because the Americans' experience in Iraq was very bitter," Mr Khatami said.
Mr Khatami said that a Russian-built nuclear reactor in Iran should be working within one year to 18 months "if everything goes well". He reiterated that Iran has "a legitimate right" to civilian nuclear power.
He also said Iran hopes for a change in US policy, so that "Americans respect other countries" and do not impose their views on other nations.
Earlier, France's foreign minister had said negotiations are "very fragile but we are progressing".
France, Britain and Germany have been negotiating with Iran seeking guarantees it will not use its nuclear program to make weapons, as Washington suspects. Tehran insists the programme - kept secret for two decades - is only for peaceful purposes.
AP