France and Germany expressed Friday dissatisfaction with Iran's response to six major nations' offer in exchange for suspension of its nuclear program and urged the country to seize the opportunity to solve the crisis. -Xinhua

France and Germany expressed yesterday dissatisfaction with Iran's response to six major nations' offer in exchange for suspension of its nuclear program and urged the country to seize the opportunity to solve the crisis.

French President Jacques Chirac said Iran's response to the offer made by the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and Germany as "ambiguous."

The Iranian response "is a bit ambiguous, especially on the means of the eventual suspension of the sensitive activities that was requested by the international community," he said at a joint news conference with visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani on Tuesday invited the six countries to "negotiate" its offer, without indicating if Iran was ready to suspend enrichment or not.

Merkel said Iran's response lacked "important elements" and urged Iran to seize the opportunity to solve the problem.

Meanwhile, French Foreign Ministry said "technical contacts" would be established in the next few days between the six major nations and Teheran to clarify the response Iran made on the nuclear issue.

"It is not ruled out that, perhaps, technical contacts could be established in the next few days," French Foreign Ministry's spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei said at a news conference.

"It is a possibility in the coming days, if we believe it is seen as useful on both sides. There could be technical contacts to clarify certain aspects of the dossier sent by the Iranians," he said.

French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy earlier on Friday strongly recommended dialogue with Iran, warning of a confrontation with Teheran and the Muslim world on nuclear issues.

He said Iran's response on Tuesday was "not satisfactory", warning that "the worst thing would be to build up a confrontation between Iran and the Muslim world and the West. That would be a clash of civilizations that France, practically alone today, is able to avoid."

The UN Security Council plans to impose sanctions against Iran if it fails to suspend enrichment by August 31.

Washington told Iran on Thursday that it still had several days to change its stand. Paris had said the resumption of negotiation depended on the suspension of the uranium enrichment, and German chancellor said the door remained open.