Iran calls on U.S. to change policies

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CAIRO, Feb. 8 (UPI) -- The U.S. government is called on to match its rhetoric for diplomacy with meaningful action, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said during a recent security conference in Germany that Washington was willing to talk with Iran over Tehran's nuclear program. The Kazakh government said recently it would host talks between Iran, the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany.

Ahmadinejad said as he left Cairo that Washington's policy toward Iran was too fluid to take seriously.

"Americans have recently changed their tune and if they also change their actions and approach and respect justice and the rights of the Iranian nation we will consider their proposals positively," he was quoted by Iran's semiofficial Fars News Agency as saying.

Washington this week tightened economic sanctions on Iran to limit revenues that Tehran could use for a nuclear program. Inspectors with the International Atomic Energy Agency said there may be military dimensions to Iran's nuclear program, an allegation Tehran denies.

"Negotiation is meant to prove the goodwill," said Ahmadinejad. "But you (the United States) make tens of (hostile) actions with ill intention and then speak of negotiations in words."