EU talks as US threatens IRANIAN Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said on Tuesday he was hopeful his country could reach a fruitful agreement with the European Union on Iran's nuclear activities despite reports of considerable differences between the EU and Tehran. During nuclear talks that started between the two parties in mid-December, the EU is trying to persuade Iran to abandon its uranium enrichment programme, which the United States claims could be used to manufacture nuclear weapons. "(The negotiations) are moving, but the final evaluation will be by mid-March," Kharrazi said as another round of negotiations ended on Friday. "We have to wait until then to have exactly our conclusion on how the negotiations have gone." The main sticking point Kharrazi said is that both Iran and the EU were searching for a "mechanism that would remove the concerns" that Iran could divert its uranium enrichment activities towards the production of nuclear weapons. Kharrazi said that Iran's right to have nuclear technology for peaceful purposes is unnegotiable. "So what remains is to continue with these negotiations until we arrive to such a conclusion." The Europeans, on the other hand, are urging the US to play a more active role in the EU-Iranian nuclear talks. "If the United States were to engage positively, and I'm aware of how difficult that is, it would substantially strengthen the European drive," German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said on Tuesday. "If the whole process collapsed then we would have to go to the UN Security Council," Fischer said. However, he suggested sanctions could strengthen hardline elements in the Iranian regime and weaken democrats. Meanwhile, Iran warned the US not to attack its nuclear facilities. The warning came amidst reports that the US intelligence community has launched a broad review of its classified data on Iran assessing the Islamic republic's suspected drive to manufacture nuclear weapons and its implication for regional and global security. The threats also coincide with statements by US President George W Bush and other senior officials indicating that Washington does not rule out the use of force against Iran. "They know our capabilities. We have told the Europeans to tell the Americans not to play with fire," Iranian spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said. Riots rock Turkey... KURDISH protesters clashed with Turkish riot police on Tuesday in demonstrations across the country to mark the sixth anniversary of the capture of rebel Kurdish commander Abdullah Ocalan. Police sprayed tear gas to break up a crowd of some 200 who gathered in a main pedestrian street in Istanbul, striking out with batons at some of the fleeing demonstrators. Similar protests took place in Diyarbakir, the main city in the largely Kurdish southeastern Turkey where police backed by armoured vehicles also used tear gas and batons to disperse around 700 people. There were also protests in the cities of Izmir, Mersin and Van. Meanwhile, also on Tuesday the leading European human rights European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) watchdog called on Turkey to step up reforms to protect minorities, saying Kurds, Gypsies and other groups continued to suffer discrimination and mistreatment. The ECRI said that, despite reforms already implemented by the Turkish government, "there are still some gaps" in legislation. The organisation, an independent human rights monitoring body formed by the 46-nation Council of Europe, urged Turkey to strengthen constitutional, civil, criminal and administrative safeguards to combat racism and discrimination. ... and western Algeria EARLIER this week disillusioned youths looted and burned a city hall in a western Algerian town to protest against a lack of housing amid a rise in civil disturbances in the oil- rich country. Violence erupted after a few hundred inhabitants of Tenira, 400km (250 miles) west of the capital Algiers, began a protest march after Friday prayers to demand promised government financial aid to buy apartments. More than a dozen youths were arrested and calm had returned to the town on Saturday, local police told newspaper Liberte. Residents are increasingly demanding better living conditions as the price of cooking oil, food products and petrol rise and the government fails to deliver on a promise to fix a chronic shortage of apartments. "Riots show the extent to which our politicians have failed. What is the job of a parliament member? Ask rioters and you will be astonished about the gap existing between them and those who are supposed to represent them," said Mahmoud Belhimer, editor and professor at Algiers University. Kuwait blocks websites KUWAIT is blocking militant Islamist websites, viewed by authorities as inciting violence, as part of its all-out war on terror following recent clashes with fundamentalists who allegedly planned to attack Americans and the country's security forces. Kuwait began to block the sites on 6 February. According to Hamed Khaja, undersecretary of the Communications Ministry, three Kuwaiti sites are now inaccessible, and technicians are working with security officials and Internet providers to crack down on non-Kuwaiti sites. "A few weeks ago, we started to make a list of these sites, and yesterday we began to actually block them," Khaja said. Khaja however admits that no blockage of websites can be completely effective because many users can get around it. "We are trying to do our best," he said. "It is not possible to prevent everybody from opening these sites that spread destructive ideas... but if we limit access to them by 90 per cent, that would be a great achievement."
