Geneva ? Iran will not respond to incentives to halt its nuclear program before mid-July, at least two weeks past the date sought by the U.S. and its partners, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Thursday after meeting Iran’s foreign minister.

“I don’t think they will give an answer before the G-8 meeting in St. Petersburg,” Annan said after a meeting with Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki. The Russian meeting of the world’s eight industrialized democracies is to run July 15-17.

The U.S. has said that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and diplomats from the other five nations offering Iran the incentives agreed by phone that they expect an answer around the time of a meeting of G-8 foreign ministers June 29 in Moscow.