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FAZ: Let's turn to Iran and its nuclear policy. How has the situation changed following the recent report by the US intelligence services which stated that Iran has not worked on nuclear weapons since 2003? Do you think Russia and China can be persuaded to go along with sanctions?

Steinmeier: The US intelligence services' report contains good news and bad news. The bad news is that the US services are certain that until 2003 Iran did work on a nuclear arms programme. The good news is that the time pressure for a political solution has now been lessened. This does not, however, change the task at hand, i.e. to prevent Iran from advancing its activities so far that it is finally able to produce weapons-grade material after all. Efforts to resolve the conflict thus remain on the agenda. I see a great willingness on the US side to use the additional time creatively, but I doubt whether the same is true of the Iranians.

FAZ: This autumn Iran's president Ahmadinejad appointed a new chief negotiator. Will this have political consequences?

Steinmeier: The former chief negotiator, Larijani, called for a negotiated solution. While he was ousted from that post, he remains chairman of the Security Council in Tehran. However, the new chief negotiator, Saeed Jalili, is a confidant of the President. His initial talks with EU High Representative Solana weren't encouraging.

FAZ: You recently met Jalili in Hamburg.

Steinmeier: At that time he had just been appointed to Larijani's negotiating team. During the talks Jalili didn't make any substantial comments. At the moment we can't judge at all whether the change of Iranian chief negotiator will mean a change in positions. However, Ahmadinejad did describe the US intelligence report as a step forward. I can't say yet whether he will change his current strategic line of instrumentalizing his conflict with America for domestic political purposes. Any change will only come through a coherent approach of the international community - including China and Russia. The pressure on Iran must not be abandoned.

FAZ: Will it be more difficult, following this report, to explain the threat of economic sanctions to China and Russia on the one hand and German business on the other, and to get sanctions implemented?

Steinmeier: Let me repeat that the task hasn't changed. I've always played an open hand in sanctions policy, saying that diplomatic sanctions and economic pressure can have negative effects for German business. These effects are real. Trade with Iran has dropped considerably. Now is not yet the time to send signals to German business that trade will pick up. This would be neither fair nor realistic.

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FAZ: There's a trend in the Arab world towards the civilian use of nuclear energy. France's President Sarkozy calls for Western aid here, mainly in order to keep developments towards military use under control. Do you think this is the right approach?

Steinmeier: In our negotiations aimed at resolving the nuclear conflict with Iran we decided, after much debate, to offer Iran assistance in the civilian use of nuclear energy provided that Tehran verifiably renounce an independent nuclear programme, cooperate with the IAEA and sign, and abide by, the Additional Protocol to the NPT. Therefore situations can arise in which German help in developing civilian nuclear energy use is justifiable. But I'd advise against seeing nuclear power as the solution to the world's energy problems and against building nuclear power stations in regions where there is neither the guarantee that the operators know how to use the technology nor sufficient certainty regarding political stability. Moreover, this technology harbours too many risks, also of the use of nuclear energy for other purposes, the limitation of which has to be our concern.

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