WASHINGTON – Iran yesterday declared that it would continue enriching uranium, rejecting a European proposal to suspend its fuel cycle as the United Nations atomic watchdog continued its inspections.

The European proposal would delay a judgment from the International Atomic Energy Agency on the Iranian nuclear program in exchange for a promise from the Iranians to end uranium enrichment – a pledge Tehran made last September as a condition for inspections, which it announced it had broken in August. The European Union deal would also offer Iran nuclear fuel for its reactors, a proposal supported by Senator Kerry in the first presidential debate.

The spokesman for Iran’s nuclear negotiating team in Vienna again said his country would not accept a deal to end uranium enrichment in exchange for nuclear fuel, a deal similar in structure to the one America, Europe, Japan, and South Korea offered North Korea in 1994. Hossein Moussavian told Iranian TV yesterday, “We are not going to count on the Europeans for fuel and we will continue on our path to be independent in this matter.”

Briefing reporters en route to Tokyo, Secretary of State Powell said he saw no signs the Iranians intended to comply with their obligations to end a program he has said repeatedly is intended to make nuclear weapons.

“I think at the September meeting it became clear that we just couldn’t keep having meetings every couple of months with no positive response from the Iranians without a referral ultimately going to the Security Council,” Mr. Powell said. “It is our position that we should continue to march toward action by the IAEA Board of Governors that would refer it to the Security Council.”

Should Iran’s violations of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty be referred to the U.N. Security Council, then it’s likely that formal sanctions against the Islamic Republic will be pursued by America and her allies on that body. While the British, French, and Germans have hinted in the past year that they would end commercial trade with Iran, for now all three governments are desperately trying to reach a deal with Tehran to avoid referring their program to the Security Council.

Nonetheless, the European offer to delay judgment from the IAEA and provide nuclear fuel and technical assistance was derided as “unbalanced” by Iran’s Foreign Ministry.

“In their proposal, the Europeans sought the suspension of enrichment until a comprehensive deal is reached,” Agence France Press quoted foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Asefi as saying. “During the negotiations there is no question of an unlimited suspension.”

Iranian papers yesterday also reported that the former president of Iran, Hashemi Rafsanjani, described the European proposal as contrary to international law.

He said, “Recognizing illegal approaches and depriving countries of their absolute rights as well as limiting use of modern technologies, particularly in the fields of modern energies, to certain colonial countries will endanger the future of the world.”

Mr. Rafsanjani is still a powerful member of Iran’s Guardian Council, which chooses who is allowed to run for office in the country’s Parliament. In February, that council blocked hundreds of lawmakers affiliated with the reformist President Khatami from running for office.

Part of the European offer to Iran is said to include a promise to help revive the moribund peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. An aid to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat told the Palestinian Arab newspaper al-Quds that five foreign ministers were planning to visit Mr. Arafat in “the near future.”

The high-profile visit, allegedly planned by the new socialist government in Spain, would contradict President Bush’s June 24, 2002, policy where he ended American contact with Israel’s one-time peace partner.