VIENNA/WASHINGTON: Iran has told world powers it wants to resume long-stalled nuclear energy talks quickly with “new initiatives” in hand. Meanwhile, France said Tehran may now be open to addressing concerns about its nuclear quest.

Tehran – facing severe sanctions to bar it from exporting oil – made the offer in a letter to the EU’s foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, which was obtained by Reuters Thursday, a day after it trumpeted several advances in nuclear know-how and sent oil prices upward with suggestions of economic retaliation.

The White House said Thursday the U.S. was in the process of reviewing the Iranian letter.Iran’s president vowed no retreat from its atomic path Wednesday, only for state television to announce the proposal to relaunch talks after a year’s hiatus – mixed signals making it difficult to define what Tehran’s ultimate intentions were.

In the letter, Iranian chief negotiator Saeed Jalili’s said he would have “new initiatives,” but did not spell them out. He made one separate reference to “Iran’s nuclear issue,” without specifying whether Tehran was prepared to negotiate on it.

But French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said that while the letter was “ambiguous” it seemed to signal “the start of opening up from Iran” with respect to its nuclear activity.

A Feb. 20-21 visit to Iran by top U.N. nuclear officials will help determine whether Tehran is serious about tackling international concerns, Juppe told reporters during a visit to Vienna.

After three years of stonewalling, the U.N. team – led by the International Atomic Energy Agency’s chief inspector Herman Nackaerts – will again try to extract Iranian explanations for an IAEA investigation, driven by intelligence reports that suggest Tehran has researched sophisticated ways to build atomic bombs.

Jalili’s letter was a reply to one from Ashton in October in which she said the big powers could meet with Iran within weeks if it was ready to “engage seriously in meaningful discussions” about its nuclear program.

Jalili said he welcomed an earlier statement by Ashton on respecting Iran’s right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy.

“[A] constructive and positive attitude toward the Islamic Republic of Iran’s new initiatives in this round of talks could open positive perspective for our negotiation,” Jalili said in the English-language letter.

“Therefore ... I propose to resume our talks in order to take fundamental steps for sustainable cooperation at the earliest possibility in a mutually agreed venue and time.”

Jalili urged a focus “on a spectrum of various issues” to lay groundwork for “constructive, forward-looking cooperation.”

His message resembled Iran’s agenda in previous abortive talks – floating undefined ideas for security and trade cooperation, while avoiding discussion of steps sought by world powers to guarantee that its nuclear program is peaceful in nature and transparent for IAEA inspectors and investigators.

Western officials said the powers were consulting on a response to Jalili’s letter, with a British Foreign Office spokesman saying they were checking closely to see whether Iran “is ready to engage meaningfully.”

A British government source struck a cautiously positive note: “The key issue last time was [Iranian] preconditions, and preconditions are not mentioned in [this] letter.”

Meanwhile, a top United States official said that they believe that Israel has not taken a decision to strike Iranian nuclear sites. The official added that country’s intelligence agencies predict that Iran will respond if attacked, but is unlikely to start a conflict.

“Iran can close the Strait of Hormuz at least temporarily, and may launch missiles against United States forces and our allies in the region if it is attacked,” Lieutenant General Ronald Burgess, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing.