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Iran nuclear chief meets IAEA officials

Agency finalises report to Security Council The report is likely to be critical of Iran for defying Council request to freeze uranium enrichment

VIENNA: Iran's top nuclear official held last-minute talks with senior International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) officials on Wednesday.

Gholamreza Aghazadeh had been scheduled to meet Olli Heinonen, a deputy IAEA director general in-charge of Teheran's nuclear file, but a diplomat familiar with the meeting later said IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei joined in for at least part of the 90-minute talks.

The diplomat cautioned against interpreting ElBaradei's presence as suggesting that the Iranians had brought anything significant to the negotiating table or anything that would alter the negative tone of an IAEA report to the U.N. Security Council.

The diplomats and officials demanded anonymity because they are not authorised to discuss the report or other confidential aspects of the IAEA's probe of Iran's nuclear programme.

They said the report — to be submitted to the Council and members of the IAEA's 35-nation board on Friday — was likely to be critical of Iran for defying a Council request to freeze uranium enrichment and fending off requests by the U.N. nuclear watchdog to provide information meant to address suspicions that it might be seeking to make nuclear weapons.

Other diplomats and European officials told The Associated Press that the United States had asked for a Security Council meeting for next Wednesday to discuss the report and how to respond to it.

The U.S. has publicly said it anticipates a negative report by ElBaradei.

"After the failure of the authorities in Iran to offer any additional transparency or cooperation, it's hard to imagine that the director general will be able to issue a positive report on Friday,'' Gregory L. Schulte, the chief U.S. delegate to the IAEA, told reporters in Berlin on Tuesday.

"Indeed, the Director-General will have little choice but to report Iran's failure to comply with the demands of the Security Council and the IAEA board of governors."

Whatever Mr. Aghazadeh had to offer in Vienna would be unlikely to make it into the report with the publishing deadline so close, said the diplomat.

Western concern has built since 2002 when Iran was found to be working on large-scale plans to enrich uranium, which can be used both to generate fuel or make the fissile core of nuclear weapons. Iran insists it is only interested in power but the international community increasingly fears ulterior motives.

While the IAEA has found no ``smoking gun'' proving Iran wants nuclear arms a series of IAEA reports have since revealed worrying clandestine activities and documents, including drawings of how to mould weapons-grade uranium into the shape of a warhead.

Iran's decision to end a freeze of enrichment in February led the IAEA board to report Teheran to the Security Council for non-compliance. The Council then gave Iran until Friday to suspend enrichment. — AP

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