TEHRAN, Iran – Iran indicated it may suspend some unspecified nuclear activities after European powers offered a package of incentives in return for Tehran’s promise to permanently give up uranium enrichment.

Meanwhile, a scientist said Iranian researchers have developed technology to produce zirconium, a key metal used in the heart of a nuclear reactor to produce nuclear fuel.

Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, Hasan Rowhani, told state TV that Tehran was still studying the offer last week by Britain, Germany, and France that included civilian nuclear technology and a trade deal.

“We are trying to choose the best course of work,” he said.

America contends Iran has a covert program to produce nuclear weapons and has been lobbying for the International Atomic Energy Agency to refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council, which could impose sanctions. The European offer was an attempt to head off a confrontation.

Iran wants “to give European countries guarantees and assurances that it will not deviate in the direction of acquiring nuclear weapons,” the foreign minister of Iran, Kamal Kharrazi, told reporters in Kuwait.

Iran has said it will never abandon enrichment, a technology that can produce fuel for nuclear reactors as well as nuclear weapons. But yesterday Mr. Rowhani suggested some flexibility.

“Indefinite doesn’t mean permanent,” Mr. Rowhani said. “They [the Europeans] called for indefinite suspension as long as talks are under way. They say, for instance, that if negotiations are to last six or seven months, then Iran should not violate the suspension for that period.”