"I don't believe in a solution without dialogue ... We can find solutions via dialogue," Chirac told Europe-1 radio hours before departing for New York to address the UN General Assembly.

"First we have to find an agenda for negotiation, then engage the negotiation. And during that negotiation I propose that on the one hand the six [major powers] refrain from referring the issue to the Security Council and [on the other hand] Iran renounce the enrichment of uranium," he said.

This is the first time a European leader has stated clearly that Iran's halt to uranium enrichment is not a "precondition" for the resumption of negotiation on the nuclear dispute.

It is not known whether Chirac would meet Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during his stay in New York.

Iran delivered its official response on Aug. 22 to an incentive package offered by the six major powers -- Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States -- aimed at defusing the international nuclear crisis, but refusing to suspend uranium enrichment by Aug. 31, the deadline laid out in the Security Council Resolution 1696.