"We will study the offer and, God willing, will give our opinion at the end of the Mordad," Ahmadinejad said in a speech, referring to the Iranian month that ends on August 22.

The statement prompted immediate telephone consultations between the foreign ministries of Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States - the UN Security Council permanent members - plus Germany over a unified stance to the delay.

Bush reacted first by saying after an EU-US summit in Vienna that Iran was dragging its feet over a "reasonable deal" and that global powers believed an answer should come within weeks."

"It seems like an awful long time for a reasonable proposal," Bush told a press conference after the talks.

"It shouldn't take the Iranians that long to analyze what is a reasonable deal," Bush said. "I said weeks, not months, and I believe that is the view of our partners."

Washington and the European Union further warned in a joint statement that the issue could again return to the UN Security Council - despite Iranian objections - should Tehran fail to join direct talks.

"We have agreed that if Iran does not engage in negotiations, further steps would be taken in the Security Council," the EU-US joint statement said. "We urge Iran to take this positive path."

Meanwhile Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel said in his capacity as EU president that "time is limited. We should not play with time."

Diplomats say Iran was originally asked to reply by June 29.

The offer, presented to Iran on June 6, involves incentives and multilateral talks if Iran agrees to suspend uranium enrichment - at the center of fears it could acquire nuclear weapons - and cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

But Iran has so far only said it wants fresh negotiations without preconditions, indicating it will not stop enriching uranium.

A joint stance on Iran remains critical amid earlier refusal by Russia and China - who both have strong trade and military ties with Tehran - to use either economic sanctions or force to prompt Iran to halt nuclear research.

The US State Department said the six foreign ministers agreed in phone talks that Iran must accept the "very good offer" quickly because patience from the global powers "isn't unlimited."

"They discussed this latest development," State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said of the six foreign ministry officials. "They all agreed that the P5-plus-Germany has made a very good offer to Iran, and we all urge Iran to accept that proposal."

Ereli said the six foreign ministry officials "reiterated the common view that we said on June 1, we expect a response within weeks, not months. And that was reaffirmed today in the call."

He said world powers expected Iran to respond through European Union foreign affairs chief Javier Solana, who originally made the international offer to Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani.

"We look forward to hearing back from Larijani to Solana, in weeks, not months, about our response," he said.

"Now is the time for Iran to accept this offer. It's not - our patience isn't unlimited," Ereli said.

Iran replied by telling Bush not to rush it into providing an answer to the offer by major world powers over its uranium enrichment programme.

"President Bush cannot and must not be in a rush," said Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki on a visit to Rome.

"When (European Union foreign policy chief) Javier Solana gave us his suggestions on June 6 no time limit was set", he told Italian television.

Iran Still Undecided On Nuclear Offer

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki on Tuesday said Tehran had yet to make up its mind over a deal offered by Western governments aimed at defusing the standoff over its nuclear program.

"It is not decided yet," Mottaki told reporters on the sidelines of a pan-Islamic conference in the capital of Azerbaijan, as US President George W. Bush upped the pressure on the Islamic republic ahead of a US-European Union summit.

Mottaki said Iran still had "doubts" over a carrot-and-stick plan to coax Iran into negotiations over its nuclear program, which the United States and Europe fear could be hiding atomic weapons development.

"I can't say for the time being when the answer will be finalized. There can be some questions and doubts which should be clarified," he said, speaking in English.

The United States and its partners - Britain, France, Germany, as well as Russia and China - have made Iran's suspension of uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities a condition for talks on Tehran's atomic program.

So far Tehran has indicated it rejects that pre-condition.

International negotiators have set a June 29 deadline for Iran to respond but Mottaki said Iran was "working on the proposal of the six countries" and denied there was any time limit.

"When this package was offered no deadline was given for our answer."

Bush leaves Tuesday for a US-EU summit in Vienna that will examine, among other issues, the package offer to Iran.

On Monday, he warned of "progressively stronger political and economic sanctions" if it refuses to freeze sensitive nuclear activities in return for talks.

Mottaki called Bush's comments a "threat" and "unacceptable."

"It's as though some have forgotten that the time of threats is over. Threats are unacceptable in today's world," he said, adding that "the political rights of Iran must be respected."

With Iran suggesting that it will soon unveil its own proposal for ending the crisis over its atomic programs, Bush signalled that the suspension of uranium enrichment and reprocessing was not negotiable.

"If Iran's leaders want peace, and prosperity, and a more hopeful future for their people, they should accept our offer, abandon any ambitions to obtain nuclear weapons, and come into compliance with their international obligations," Bush said in a speech to the graduating class at the US Merchant Marine Academy in King's Point, New York.

Mottaki is due to visit Italy on Wednesday for talks with his counterpart Massimo D'Alema, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.

Mottaki also attacked what Tehran perceives as Western-sponsored ethnic unrest in Iran after members of the ethnic-Azeri minority in the country rioted in May in protest over the publication of an offensive cartoon in an Iranian newspaper.

"Any plan to make divisions among Iranian people was always defeated," Mottaki said, adding: "We do not let a third party to interfere in our relationship."

Mottaki said all of Iran's minorities had a place in its society.

"Iranian, Azerbaijani, Turkmen, Baluchistani, Kurdish: All have important roles in running the country," he added.

They will be joined later by European Commission President Jose Barroso and EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana for another 15-minute session. The meeting took place in the Hofburg conference center, a former royal palace in downtown Vienna.

Outside the conference center, a group of demonstrators decked out in football kits with the words "U.S." and "EU" on their back protested against unfair global trade which they said should be mainly blamed on Western countries.

Four people, wearing headgear resembling giant puppets of Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, German Chancellor Angela Merkeland French President Jacques Chirac, were given a yellow card by a "referee" from Oxfam, an international agency aiming to eliminate poverty and injustice worldwide.

"The Doha round of trade talks has been put in jeopardy because the EU and the U.S. do not want to make concessions in farm subsidies and other areas," said Louis Belanger, spokesman for Oxfam in Europe.

"We gave them a yellow card this time and if they do not act we will give them another next week in Geneva," he said, referring to the meeting of ministers from some key countries in Switzerland next week on how to advance the WTO negotiations.

The world trade talks are on Wednesday's agenda as Brussels and Washington are trying to seek more concessions -- mainly on farm subsidies and agricultural market access -- from the other side. Members of the World Trade Organization are struggling to meet a year-end deadline for completion of the current round of trade talks.

Iran's nuclear program, the Middle East, climate change and energy security will also feature prominently at the annual trans-Atlantic meeting.

The EU will also urge Washington to take measures on its detention center in Cuba's Guantanamo Bay, where hundreds of people are held without charge or access to a lawyer for years. Brussels sees the prison as a source of major human rights violations and has repeatedly called for its closure.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her Austrian counterpart Ursula Plassnik will sign an agreement on the renewal of the cooperation program in high school and professional education.

The program seeks to encourage U.S. and European students to study at the other side of the Atlantic by organizing various exchange projects.

A Justice Department official is scheduled to testify at a hearing on signing statements next Tuesday, Specter said.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who had lunch with Specter on Wednesday, will face questions about the presidential memos when he appears before the committee on July 18 to discuss the National Security Agency's domestic spying program.

Bush has signed at least 750 such memos since taking office in 2001, according to the Boston Globe, more than previous presidential administrations combined.

Bush has used signing statements to signal that he might bypass a ban on the torture of U.S.-held prisoners and ignore new provisions in an anti-terrorism law that call for increased congressional oversight.

Specter said the heavy use of signing statements fits in with a larger pattern of overreaching by the Bush administration, from the NSA's surveillance program to a first-ever raid on a congressman's office as part of a bribery probe.

Trying to legislate against signing statements probably would not work, Specter said, but there might be other ways to force the administration to curb their use.

"Maybe we can find some pressure point on the budget or appropriations or confirmations or something of that sort," he said. "I'm thinking about all the alternatives."

A White House official said signing statements help the public understand how a given law will be enforced and can provide guidance to courts as they interpret it.

"They are used appropriately and the content is consistent with that of past presidents," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

Specter has clashed with the White House in recent months about the spying program and recently accused Vice President
Dick Cheney of meddling in his committee's affairs.

Specter has been trying to reach a compromise with Cheney and other officials on legislation that would allow a special court to review the surveillance program.

"We've made some progress on it but I'm not prepared to give you the details," he said. "This is a major matter for them that they have not yet finished."

President Bush, meeting with European leaders in Austria, said North Korea faced further isolation if it went ahead with any launch.

"It should make people nervous when non-transparent regimes who have announced they have nuclear warheads, fire missiles," he said. "This is not the way you conduct business in the world."

Earlier Wednesday, Han Song Ryol, deputy chief of North Korea's mission to the United Nations, said Pyongyang was seeking to resolve the missile test concerns through direct talks with the United States.

"North Korea as a sovereign state has the right to develop, deploy, test fire and export a missile," he told
South Korea's Yonhap news agency. "We are aware of the U.S. concerns about our missile test-launch. So our position is that we should resolve the issue through negotiations."

Pyongyang has consistently pressed for direct dialogue with the United States, while Washington insists it will only speak to the North at six-nation nuclear talks. The North has refused to return to the nuclear talks since November, in anger over a U.S. crackdown on the country's alleged illicit financial activity.

State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli reiterated the U.S. position Wednesday, saying direct talks with North Korea are "not in the cards."

"The issue of North Korea's nuclear program is not a U.S.-North Korea issue. It is an issue that concerns the entire region," he told reporters in Washington.

"If North Korea wants to talk to the United States about its missile-launch programs or its nuclear program or about security and stability on the peninsula in general, then we should do it through the six-party process," Ereli said. "It's a multilateral approach which provides for, within it, bilateral engagement."

The missile crisis led former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung to cancel a trip next week to the North that could have offered a rare chance for talks. In addition, South Korea said a missile test could affect Seoul's humanitarian aid to Pyongyang.

Washington was weighing responses to a potential test that could include attempting to shoot down the missile, U.S. officials have said.

Bolton said he was continuing discussions with U.N. Security Council members on possible action, and had met with Russia's U.N. ambassador.

"Obviously the priority remains trying to persuade North Korea not to conduct the launch," Bolton said at U.N. headquarters in New York.

After North Korea surprised the world in 1998 by firing a missile that flew over Japan into the Pacific, the Security Council issued a press statement - its mildest comment. But Bolton said there would be stronger council reaction this time.

"There's no question about it," Bolton said. "We're seeing broad support for something stronger but we don't want to be in a position where we're predicting the future or doing anything other than making it clear we don't think the launch ought to take place."

U.S. Ambassador to Japan Thomas Scheiffer said the United States has means of responding to a North Korean missile test that it didn't have in 1998, and is considering "all options."

In comments published Wednesday, North Korea said its self-imposed moratorium on testing long-range missiles no longer applies because it's not in direct dialogue with Washington, suggesting it would hold off on any launch if Washington agreed to new talks.

North Korea imposed its missile moratorium in 1999 amid friendlier relations with the U.S. during the Clinton administration. During a 2002 summit with Japan, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il signed an agreement to extend the moratorium until at least 2003 - and reaffirmed the launch ban at another summit in 2004.

Charles Kartman, a State Department Asia expert during the Clinton administration, said that the United States failed to follow up on talks that secured an agreement with North Korea to suspend its long-range missile tests.

Kartman, who represented the United States in talks with North Korea in the late 1990s, said the Bush administration had little interest in dealing directly with Pyongyang.

"I never understood why they didn't pick up that negotiation," he said Wednesday. "This moratorium was not intended to be the final deal."

Intelligence reports say the North is possibly fueling a Taepodong-2 missile with a range experts estimate could be up to 9,300 miles.

There are diverging expert opinions on whether fueling would mean a launch was imminent - due to the highly corrosive nature of the fuel - or whether the North could wait a month or more.

Victoria Samson, a research analyst with the Washington-based Center for Defense Information, said that if the missile were loaded, it would probably have to be fired "within days."

"That sort of fuel combination ... starts eating away at the missile," she said.

The key question is, however, whether it was indeed loaded or whether the North Koreans just wanted to make it appear that way for the benefit of satellites.

North Korea claims it has nuclear weapons, but isn't believed to have a design that would be small and light enough to top a missile.

South Korean Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok told opposition lawmakers Wednesday a missile test could affect Seoul's humanitarian aid to the North.

"If North Korea test fires a missile, it might have an impact on aid of rice and fertilizer to North Korea," Lee said, according to his spokesman Yang Chang-seok.

South Korea has shipped 150,000 tons of fertilizer this year and had planned to send 200,000 tons more. Pyongyang has asked for 500,000 tons of rice this year, but Seoul has yet to agree.

The European Union appealed Wednesday to the North to cancel any plans for a launch.

"We must say that what they are trying to do ... will have consequences," EU foreign and security affairs chief Javier Solana said on the sidelines of the European meeting with Bush.

Timothy Geithner, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, predicted rising interest rates and difficulties for families that have obtained adjustable rate mortgages, or "variable" interest rates. Many are likely to lose their homes as rising home mortgage rates add hundreds of dollars to their monthly payments, he said. While most listened solemnly and some expressed concern, one was heard to say, "stupid Americans deserve their fate."

Many Americans, especially young families, have been buying expensive homes at low but "variable" interest rates. Others have been paying just the interest owed on their homes and not the principal. They are the most vulnerable, Geithner said. Some have paid little or nothing down. Some institutions "lend" buyers the down payment.

When home construction peaks and prices start downward, many will find they owe more on their home than it is worth in the marketplace. They will also find their mortgage-even "interest-only" payments-are unaffordable. The banks will get the homes back and sell them again.

Again, the term "stupid Americans" was heard among clucks of sympathy or silent indifference. According to one source, no concern was expressed by Allan Hubbard, assistant to President Bush for economic policy.

European Bilderbergers said they would have no part in an invasion of Iran, something Bush says is an "option on the table." Although NATO is helping by adding 9,000 troops in Afghanistan, expect no help if Iran is invaded, they said. "We will not help you fight a war for Israel," one said.

Several noted that Israel has had nuclear weapons since at least 1963 and has never signed on to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, so no international inspections are conducted. It was the late George Ball, a charter member of Bilderberg who was No. 2 man in the State Department under presidents John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, who first revealed that Israel has nuclear weapons.

"Is it not reasonable that Iran would need such a deterrence against Israel?" an unidentified Bilderberger was heard saying. "If you invade Iran, Israel is your only ally and good luck." One suggested that "surgical strikes"-but no land invasion-may be tolerated but others said they would be ineffective.

Listeners to this dialogue included Eival Gildy of Israel, head of "coordination and strategy in the office of the prime minister," and Ziad Abu Amr, member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, president of the Palestinian Council on Foreign Relations and professor of political science at Birzeit University. Ahmad Chalabi, former deputy prime minister of Iraq and one of the key sources of disinformation about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, was also present.

William Luti, special assistant to Bush for defense policy, and Richard Perle, former high Defense Department official and still a close adviser to Bush, responded that the United States is simply trying to stop the spread of nuclear weapons and make the world "safe." But, said one European: "How 'safe' do you think the world will be if you invade Iran and Iran responds by firing missiles on your ally, Israel? Israel will nuke Iran in response and you will have your 'proliferation.'"

Robert Zoellick, deputy secretary of state, said it would be necessary to keep the invasion "option" to pressure Iran into agreeing to abandon its nuclear weapons program.

"You're wrong," the European answered. "Iran simply refuses to be bullied by the United States. Save us a lot of trouble and forget about invading Iran." The Americans remained silent.

Bilderberg's mood was described as "uneasy" when it came to the issue of oil, a discussion followed closely by such oil-rich participants as banker David Rockefeller, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and Franco Bernabe, vice chairman of Rothschild Europe.

The "Latin American problem" mixed the issue of oil with Bilderberg's scheme to expand NAFTA throughout the Western Hemisphere and have it evolve into an "American Union" patterned after the European Union. Hugo Chavez, head of Venezuela, is not only raising taxes on the extraction of oil from his country, he is trying to establish a trade coalition with neighboring nations that would block the expansion of NAFTA by creating the Free Trade Area of the Americas.

Bilderberg's consensus seemed to be to not force higher oil prices at the moment, but be content with the immense profits enjoyed now.

Chavez's barrier to NAFTA expansion leaves them moody because establishing an "American Union" is a critical step toward Bilderberg's goal of establishing the United Nations as a world government.

The deputy chief executive of Russian gas giant Gazprom, which is seeking new price increases, responded in kind, telling a magazine in Germany that Ukraine was taking gas illegally and this could lead to supply shortages in Western Europe.

Tymoshenko, whose glamour and passion fired protesters during the 2004 mass upheavals, was sacked as premier eight months ago by President Viktor Yushchenko. He has since repeatedly accused her of pursuing personal ambitions.

Addressing the chamber, she pledged judicial reform to eliminate corruption still rampant in the ex-Soviet state.

"Today we begin our fight to make our country democratic and free of corruption," Tymoshenko said, breaking the news of the deal bringing together Yushchenko's Our Ukraine party, her own bloc and the Socialist Party.

Business magnates, she said, would no longer escape the law.

"The first reform we will conduct will be judicial to enable us to say that it is not the mafia who decides what is right or wrong or who gets a factory for nothing," she said. "This will be decided by the law, by legal procedures."

Speaking to reporters during a later break, she called for a review on all gas deals with giant neighbour Russia.

"I think all issues on gas supplies to Ukraine now require further deep revision and review," Tymoshenko said.

REASONABLE, PREDICTABLE

Accused throughout her first term in office of impulsive actions that frightened investors, Tymoshenko pledged her economic policies would be "reasonable and predictable".

Tymoshenko was likely to be presented as the coalition's choice for premier next week.

Parliament adjourned until Tuesday.

Yushchenko simply noted that the coalition was now formed and called for patience in assessing it. "For the first time in 15 years, we have the test of forming a workable majority," Interfax Ukraine news agency quoted him as saying outside Kiev.

The accord, clinched nearly three months after an election, ended weeks of talks which all but shut down the assembly.

In Brussels, European Union External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said she hoped the coalition would secure approval of laws to enable Ukraine to join the World Trade Organisation -- one of Yushchenko's unfulfilled policy goals. That would pave the way for talks on a free trade agreement.

The EU backed the Revolution and gave Kiev "market economy" status last December, making it easier to trade with the EU.

Parties behind the revolution that brought Yushchenko to power had been at odds since the president, committed to nudging Ukraine towards EU and NATO membership, fired Tymoshenko less than eight months into her mandate as premier.

The opposition said the new government was doomed to fail, with the traditional split between the nationalist west and Russian-speaking east of the country bound to widen.

Under new constitutional rules, the president has ceded many powers to parliament, which was required to form a majority within a 30-day deadline expiring this week. The chamber chooses the premier and has 30 more days to produce a cabinet line-up.

The three parties won 243 of 450 assembly seats, though only 239 were registered in the coalition.