Iran’s president said in an interview broadcast Monday that he sees “common ground” with the West over his country’s disputed nuclear program, and “new behavior” from the United States that could merit a positive response.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told NBC News he believes U.S. policy “has been to confront the Iranian people” for the past 50 years. But he said he now sees “new behavior” and is unsure whether it’s based on “mutual respect, cooperation and justice.”

“If the approach changes, we will be facing a new situation and the response by the Iranian people will be a positive one,” Ahmadinejad said.

The U.S. and Iran broke ties after the 1979 Islamic revolution and U.S. Embassy hostage crisis, but Washington recently indicated it intends to open a consular office in Tehran.

The U.S. State Department downplayed Ahmadinejad’s comments Monday, with spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos saying: “Deeds, not words, are what we are looking for.”

The interview came ahead of a Saturday deadline for Iran to respond to a package of incentives offered by six world powers, in exchange for an agreement by Tehran to curb uranium enrichment.

It’s a process used to generate nuclear power, or build a weapon.

“They submitted a package and we responded by submitting our own package,” Ahmadinejad said, referring to a July 19 meeting in Switzerland involving the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, plus Germany.

“We are going to negotiate over the common ground as it exists inside the two packages,” he said. “If the two parties succeed...that will help us to work on our differences as well to reach an agreement.”

Iran’s response has not yet been made public, and Ahmadinejad did not elaborate. But his comments were unusually conciliatory, and raised hopes for a breakthrough.

Iran faces a fourth round of United Nations sanctions if it remains unwilling to suspend or at least not expand its uranium enrichment.

The July 19 talks in Geneva included a senior American diplomat for the first time _ signaling an increased U.S. effort to push for a compromise. Previously, the U.S. has refrained from directly participating in the talks until Iran first suspends enrichment.

Uranium can be used as nuclear reactor fuel or as the core for atomic warheads, depending on the degree of enrichment.

The United States and other Western nations accuse Iran of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons, though Tehran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.

Speaking to NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams, Ahmadinejad said his country doesn’t “believe in a nuclear bomb.”

“Nuclear bombs belong to the 20th century. We are living in a new century,” he said.