ANKARA, Turkey (AP) – America and other world powers are willing to consider an Iranian proposal that would allow the country to keep some of its uranium enrichment program intact instead of dismantling it completely, foreign government officials said Tuesday.

On the eve of talks between top Iranian envoy Ali Larijani and Javier Solana, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, the officials – some of them diplomats, others based in their capitals – said the discussions were key because for the first time they could try to sidestep the deadlock over enrichment by trying to agree on a new definition of the term.

The officials were familiar with the negotiations with Iran or specialized in non-proliferation issues.

Iran’s defiance of a U.N. Security Council demand to freeze all activities linked to enrichment – a possible pathway to nuclear arms – has led to two sets of sanctions against the country. Although the punishments are limited and mild, they could be further sharpened if the Islamic republic refuses to compromise.

Iran argues the sanctions are illegal, pointing out that has the right to enrich to generate nuclear power under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. That, say Iranian officials, is the only purpose of their program, rejecting suspicions that they want to ultimately enrich to weapons-grade uranium for the fissile core of nuclear warheads.

America and others say past suspicious nuclear activities, including a program Iran kept secret for nearly two decades, set the country apart from others that have endorsed the treaty.

The last face-to-face talks between Solana and Larijani were more than six months ago, and the foundered over the same issue. Mr. Solana, representing America, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany, demanded that Iran dismantle not only fledging enrichment efforts but all linked aspects, including assembling centrifuges to enrich and facilities to house such plants. Tehran refused.

The approach on both sides ahead of Wednesday’s talks, however, might make a compromise easier, because of a new willingness to examine possible ways of redefining an enrichment freeze, said the officials, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because their information was confidential.