German official says lifting sanctions still an option for Iran.

(From BBC Monitoring International Reports)

German Foreign Affairs State Minister Gernot Erler has said the fact that "the Iraq scenario" has been avoided at the meeting held by the foreign minister of six permanent members of the UN Security Council is "a good result". He added: "The important thing here is that these six powers have closed ranks, and that Iran did not succeed in separating them." He said: "The whole world can see now who is constructive here and who is not." He also said the option of lifting the existing sanctions, which he called "a very attractive offer", was still on the table. The following is the text of a telephone interview with Erler by Friedbert Meurer; originally broadcast at 0615 gmt on 31 Mar 06, entitled "The whole world can see now who is constructive here", published by Deutschlandfunk website on 31 March; first paragraph is an introduction:

[Meurer] Yesterday in Berlin, the foreign ministers of the UN veto powers, together with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, held consultations on the conflict over the Iranian nuclear programme. The previous day, the UN Security …