"This is not the time for anyone to take independent decisions," Annan told reporters in Doha, his latest stop in a Middle East tour.

"We want to avoid confrontation. Confrontation is not in the interest of anyone in the region or in the international community."

Annan has been touring the region for a week to shore up a ceasefire that halted more than a month of fighting between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas.

During his visit to Tehran on Sunday, Annan said Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had "reaffirmed to me Iran's preparedness and determination to negotiate and find a solution to the (nuclear) crisis" but would not suspend enrichment.

Annan's visit came just days after Tehran failed to meet a UN Security Council deadline to halt sensitive nuclear work, which the United States says is aimed at producing nuclear weapons but which Tehran says is to meet energy needs.

Newspapers in Tehran reported on Monday that lawmakers had moved a step closer to approving a bill to ban inspectors from the UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), from its atomic sites.

"In (Sunday's) open session of parliament, the bill for suspending the entry of IAEA inspectors was received by the presiding board and handed over to the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee for study," the daily Jomhouri-ye Eslami reported.

The head of the committee, Allaeddin Boroujerdi, was quoted as saying by Sharq newspaper: "If the Security Council decides to deprive the Iranian nation of its legal rights, we will obligate the government to suspend all of the inspections of the IAEA inspectors that are going on at the moment."

The IAEA now only has routine access to Iranian atomic facilities after Iran stopped allowing short-notice inspections earlier this year when its case was sent to the UN Security Council.

Although the conservative deputies who dominate parliament are vocal opponents of compromise in Iran's nuclear standoff with the West, atomic policy is decided by the leadership. The final say lies with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Asked about the nuclear dispute at a weekly news conference, government spokesman Gholamhossein Elham said: "We think a logical atmosphere is starting to prevail and we are optimistic."

The United States said on Friday it was consulting European governments about possible sanctions against the Islamic Republic, but the EU has signalled it wants more dialogue and has agreed to try to clarify Iran's stance within two weeks.

European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana will meet Larijani in the week ahead to try to clear up ambiguities in Tehran's reply to the major powers' offer of broad cooperation if it stops the nuclear work.