Tehran  - The six world powers have put aside their initial demand that Iran suspend its uranium enrichment process, the Tehran daily Kayhan said in an editorial Tuesday.

Kayhan said the world powers in Geneva last week welcomed Iran's plan to exchange low-enriched uranium for high-enriched material for its research reactor in Tehran, guaranteeing a level of 5 per cent.

"Iran had always insisted that its enrichment level would not go beyond 5 per cent and be solely used for producing nuclear fuel. After Geneva, our opponents have granted Iran this right and de facto dropped their initial demand for Iran to suspend uranium enrichment," the daily said.

"The Geneva meeting showed that instead of Iran, the world powers made the long overdue concession."

The editorial said the world powers had no other alternative but to acknowledge Iran as a country with nuclear know-how.

"They (world powers) could have acknowledged this Iranian legitimate right six years ago and avoided all the political ballyhoo and challenges during this time," said the newspaper that is close to both Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Iran says that the uranium exchange and inspection of the new plant south of Tehran had nothing to do with the world powers but coordinated with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) before the Geneva meeting.

Iran on Sunday agreed with IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei to send Iran Atomic Organization head Ali-Akbar Salehi to Vienna to discuss the uranium exchange with representatives of France, Russia and the United States.

They also agreed that the new nuclear plant near the holy city of Qom - so far known as Fordo - would be inspected by the IAEA on October 25.

The next round of nuclear talks with the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council - Britain, China, France, Russia and the US - plus Germany is scheduled to be held before the end of the month, probably after the IAEA inspection of the new site. (dpa)