TEHRAN: Iran said yesterday it could endorse a UN deal for it to send potential nuclear fuel abroad for processing, the first official indication that Tehran could respond positively to the agreement.

The remark by Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki was the most positive yet from a senior Iranian official and hinted at a shift in backroom debate between hardliners and moderates in the Iranian leadership, on accepting the deal.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said it was urgent for world powers to make a lasting deal with Tehran to avert an Israeli strike, but Mottaki said that Israel was too weak to carry out any attack on Tehran's nuclear sites.

Meanwhile, Russia called world powers to show maximum patience in the Iranian nuclear crisis.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov hailed the UN atomic agency-brokered plan as a way to "cool down emotions".

Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan downplayed Western concerns that Iran wants to build nuclear weapons as "gossip", and implied that the accusers were guilty of hypocrisy.