Iran has rejected plans for it to send most of its stocks of low-enriched uranium abroad, delivering a severe blow to UN-brokered efforts to allay Western concerns over its nuclear ambitions. Foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Iran has ruled out proposals backed by the major powers for it to ship out more than 70 per cent of its stocks before receiving any nuclear fuel in return. France, which had been set to play a central role in the proposed deal, swiftly expressed disappointment with the Iranian position. Mr. Mottaki said Iran is prepared to consider the idea of a simultaneous exchange of uranium for fuel, but the UN nuclear watchdog, which has been brokering the negotiations, has said that idea is unacceptable to the Western powers. Western leaders have expressed fears that Iran might covertly divert some of its uranium stocks and enrich them further to the much higher levels of purity required to make an atomic bomb, an ambition Iranian officials strongly deny. Western governments support the UN-brokered deal because they believe it would leave Iran with insufficient stocks of low-enriched uranium with which to make a bomb. Under the IAEA-brokered proposals, Iran would send out 1,200 kilograms, which would then be further enriched by Russia and converted into fuel by France before being supplied to the Tehran reactor.