Ahmadinejad writes Bush on nuclear status

TEHRAN, May 8 (UPI) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sent a letter to U.S. President George Bush in hopes of defusing the nuclear enrichment standoff.

Ahmadinejad sent the letter a day after saying in Tehran that if international treaties failed to secure the legitimate rights of all nations to generate electricity, they would become invalid, the state-run IRNA news agency reported.

In the letter to Bush, Ahmadinejad proposes "new ways for exiting from the current critical situation," government spokesman Gholamhossein Elham said Monday.

The letter, sent through the Swiss embassy in Tehran, came just ahead of a meeting of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council in New York, CNN reported.

Delegates were to discuss a draft resolution on Iran that was introduced last week by the United States, France and Britain. It demands Tehran give up its production of nuclear fuel or face penalties that could include economic sanctions.

Russia and China, the other two permanent members of the Security Council, have spoken against sanctions.