US President George W. Bush has decided to back the plan of the European Union to offer economic incentives to Iran if it agrees to abandon any effort to build nuclear weapons, the Washington Post reported Friday.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice plans to announce the decision as early as Friday, the newspaper reported. This is a sharp policy shift for a government that had long refused to bargain for Iran's cooperation, the newspaper quoted senior administration officials as saying.

Rice hinted at the decision Friday before traveling to Mexico. "I think we're really coming to a common view of how to proceed," she said of her discussion with the Europeans who have taken the lead in negotiating with Iran.

"We're looking for ways to more actively support that diplomacy, but I want to be very clear that this is really not an issue of what people should be giving to Iran. This is an issue of ...keeping the spotlight on Iran which ought to be living up to its international obligation," she said.

Rice said Iran would have to commit to not using its civilian nuclear power program as an excuse for secret weapons development and would have to submit to intensive inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Although she declined to discuss particular incentives, those on the table include accelerating Iran's bid to join the World Trade Organization and permitting Tehran to purchase badly-needed spare parts for its aging passenger jets.

Deputy Secretary of State Robert B. Zoellick met with British, French and German officials in Washington on Tuesday to work through the details. They "share a common understanding of where our red lines are... and when we'd go to the Security Council," the Washington Post quoted an unidentified European official as reporting.

(Xinhua News Agency March 12, 2005)