Berlin - International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Chief Mohamed ElBaradei said Friday that he believes that Iran has not totally rejected his agency's nuclear fuel plan, but that time was running out.

"The ball is now in Iran's court. I hope they will not miss this fleeting chance," he told reporters in Berlin.

On Thursday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad brushed off international warnings after apparently rejecting a compromise deal on the country's controversial nuclear programme.

However, Iran has not made a formal written response to the IAEA's proposal.

The deal proposed that Iran would ship its low-grade enriched uranium to Russia and France, where it would be processed into fuel for Tehran's medical research reactor.

Top diplomats from the so-called "5+1" group of world powers were to meet in Brussels on Friday to discuss how to respond to Iran's so- far negative response to the proposed deal

On Wednesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said that Iran would only accept the fuel deal if the swap of low-enriched uranium for nuclear fuel would be effected simultaneously.

ElBaradei has accordingly proposed Turkey as a trusted intermediary, whereby Iran would ship the nuclear fuel to Turkey, which would hold on to it while Russia enriches a separate batch of nuclear fuel. Russia would only receive the original Iranian fuel once it had delivered the enriched fuel to Iran.

Iran "needed to rise above their domestic conflicts" on the nuclear issue, and take a "minimum risk" in the interests of peace, ElBaradei said.

"I hope to get an answer soon, within the next week or so," ElBaradei said.

"That would open a space for Iran and the US to engage in broad negotiations," he said. (dpa)