(PTI): After Iran announced that it needs more time to consider an IAEA-brokered draft proposal on nuclear fuel supply, Washington says it “will not wait forever”.

“Obviously we would have preferred to have a response today. We approach this with a sense of urgency,” said US State Department spokesman Ian Kelly late on Friday.

“We can stretch things for a few days, and that’s really what we’re talking about. But we’re not going to wait forever,” he added.

He nevertheless hoped that the Tehran government would eventually accept the deal. “We hope that they will next week provide a positive response.”

The State Department spokesman added that Washington is prepared to further discuss Iran’s nuclear issue with other countries.

IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei, on Wednesday, proposed and sent a draft nuclear agreement to the governments of Iran, Russia, the United States and France.

While the IAEA deal received the backing of Russia, France and the United States, Iran’s envoy to the UN nuclear watchdog, Ali-Asghar Soltaniyeh, said Friday that the country would respond to the offer next week.

The proposal requires Iran to export its low-enriched uranium to Russia for further refinement, then onto France for fabrication into fuel assemblies that can be used in the Tehran research reactor.

The Tehran research reactor, which supplies medical isotopes for treating cancer to more than 200 hospitals in Iran, requires uranium enriched up to 20 percent.

Iranian officials say they prefer to buy nuclear fuel for the research reactor under the supervision of the UN nuclear watchdog rather than ship uranium abroad.

A senior member of the Iranian negotiating team in Vienna said Friday that Tehran “is the buyer of nuclear fuel for the Tehran reactor and sellers should give a positive response to the buyer’s proposal.”

He said that the country would enrich uranium to the required level, if it cannot purchase it from abroad because ‘more than 180 hospitals use radiopharmaceuticals daily’.