US urges Iran to alter its defiant nuclear stance

Before nuclear talks between senior Iranian and EU negotiators, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged Tehran on Thursday to heed the UN Security Council and freeze uranium enrichment, saying Washington was ready for wide-ranging talks if it complied. "I think it's time for Iran to change its tactics," Rice told reporters in Vienna, Austria, where she was attending a conference on the role of women in the Middle East. If Iran does so, she said, "then we are prepared to ... sit with Iran and talk about whatever Iran would like to talk about."