Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wrote to President George W Bush on Monday proposing “new solutions” to turn around Tehran’s plummeting relationship with the United States and other Western powers—a move apparently timed to blunt US determination for a UN Security Council vote this week that could lead to punishing sanctions against the Islamic regime.

The letter was an abrupt about-face for the fiery Ahmadinejad who has spent months vilifying the Bush administration and its allies as bullies who were trying to wrongly deny the Iranians the right to enrich uranium for fuel in nuclear reactors to generate electricity. The Bush administration and some Western allies are concerned the programme is a cover for making nuclear weapons.

The Ahmadinejad letter was the first from an Iranian head of state to an American president in 27 years and may signal a demand that he be treated as an equal in finding a way out of the prolonged dispute over its nuclear programme.

The Ahmadinejad letter, delivered by the Iranian foreign minister to the Swiss Embassy in Tehran, proposed “new solutions for getting out of international problems and the current fragile situation of the world,” spokesman Gholam-Hossein Elham told a news conference. Elham declined to reveal more, stressing “it is not an open letter.” Asked whether the letter could lead to direct US-Iranian negotiations, he replied: “For the time being, it’s just a letter.”

In Turkey, Iran’s top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani said the letter “could lead to a new diplomatic opening” but also warned it contained no softening in Iran’s position. He refused to give details of the letter’s content, but said, “Perhaps, it could lead to a new diplomatic opening. It needs to be given some time.”

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