New York  - Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has offered the United States and other Western powers access to scientists working in Iran's nuclear programme, according to a report by the Washington Post on Thursday.

The offer - a confidence-building measure - was broached by Ahmadinejad while speaking with Post editors at the United Nations on Wednesday.

He added that Iran would seek to buy enriched uranium from the United States to use for medical purposes. A rejection, he was cited as saying, would only prove that Iran needed to enrich its own uranium.

"It is a humanitarian issue," Ahmadinejad said. "I think this is a very solid proposal which gives a good opportunity for a start" to build trust between Tehran and Washington.

In a separate report from the Washington Times, former US weapons inspector David Albright confirmed that the US had provided Iran a medical reactor near Tehran prior to the Islamic revolution. He said that Iran for years has been unable to obtain uranium for this medical reactor.  dpa