Iran leader challenges Bush to a debate

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran's hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday challenged President Bush to a televised debate, a proposal the White House immediately dismissed as a "diversion."

The challenge came during a freewheeling, 2 ½-hour news conference and only two days before a U.N. Security Council ultimatum demanding Iran roll back its suspect nuclear program.

Officials in Washington and European capitals said Tuesday that Iran specialists, in an apparent act of defiance, have begun enriching a new batch of uranium. Inspectors with the International Atomic Energy Agency plan to formally disclose the new enrichment work, as well as additional Iranian nuclear advances in a report due out Thursday, according to the officials, some of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Ahmadinejad contends that no one can prevent Iran from pursuing what he called a peaceful nuclear program — not even U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who is expected to visit here Saturday.

The U.N. Security Council has set Thursday as a deadline for Iran to suspend uranium enrichment.

Ex-president of Iran may meet with Carter

WASHINGTON — In an event that would turn a page in U.S. history, former President Jimmy Carter has agreed in principle to host former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami for talks during his visit to the United States this week.

Carter's term as president was dominated by the rupture in relations after the 1979 Iranian revolution and the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, where 52 Americans were held hostage for 444 days until the day he left office.

Iranians made the overture for the meeting, but the Carter Center in Atlanta is working on possible timing, according Phil Wise, an aide to Carter.

"I can confirm that President Carter is open to a meeting if the former president of Iran would like to have one," he said.

Despite mounting tensions between Washington and Tehran over the latter's nuclear program, the Bush administration Tuesday issued a visa for Khatami, as well as about a dozen other family members and staff, for about a two-week visit, the State Department confirmed. Khatami is expected to arrive in the United States on Thursday.

The White House said Tuesday that Khatami, a reformer who served as president from 1997 until 2005, had been invited by private organizations and is not part of the current Iranian regime.