Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki shakes hands with visiting Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar in Tehran on Saturday. -Xinhua/Reuters

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Saturday that Iran was studying a proposal of incentives and penalties agreed by six world powers in a bid to solve the standoff over Iran's disputed nuclear issue and may make its own package in response.

"We have started studying the proposal and afterwards we will make an official reply to the Europeans," Mottaki was quoted by the official IRNA news agency as saying after talks with visiting Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar.

Iran's response could be an evolvement of the six-nation offer, but also may be a totally new package, said Mottaki.

"We hope that shuttle diplomacy will help lead to a package of proposals by the Islamic republic, which may be in the form of amendments or counter-proposals and can be studied carefully by the Europeans," he said.

However, Mottaki did not disclose either the contents of the package or what changes Tehran wanted to made to the six-nation proposal.

"We want to find out a comprehensive understanding which can satisfy Iran's right and also eliminate the concerns of the other side simultaneously," stressed Mottaki.

European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana on Tuesday presented to Iran the proposal over Iran's nuclear issue, which had been agreed by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany in a meeting in Vienna.

The proposal includes both incentives aimed at persuading Iran to suspend uranium enrichment and possible sanctions if Iran chooses not to comply.

Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani has expressed cautious optimism over the new package after his meeting with Solana, saying "there were positive steps but also ambiguities."

Larijani has promised to give a formal response after "a careful study" of the proposal.

But Iranian senior cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, who is also head of the powerful Guardian Council, expressed on Friday his flinty attitude toward the six-nation nuclear proposal, vowing that the Islamic republic would not compromise on its nuclear right.

"The package offered (by the West) is only good for them, not for us," said Jannati, adding Iran had to maintain uranium enrichment to the level of 3.5 to 5 percent to make fuel for nuclear power plants and that the West would have no choice but to accept it.

The United States has accused Iran of secretly developing nuclear weapons under a civilian front, a charge categorically denied by Tehran.