Iran ignores nuke deadline

2006-08-31 22:50

Vienna - Iran has defied a UN deadline for it to stop strategic nuclear fuel work, the UN nuclear watchdog said on Thursday, in a long-awaited confidential report that could set the stage for sanctions.

The report confirmed Tehran's oft-stated determination to press ahead with uranium enrichment, which makes nuclear reactor fuel but also in highly refined form atom bomb material.

"Iran has not suspended its enrichment related activities," the watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in the report, which was filed to the UN security council and obtained by AFP.

But the Vienna-based IAEA also said that IAEA inspectors had found no "concrete proof" that Iran's nuclear programme was of a military nature, a senior official close to the IAEA said.

The source added that Iran had not been co-operating in giving information needed to resolve key questions.

"Inspectors have not uncovered any concrete proof that Iran's nuclear programme is of a military nature," the official told reporters on condition of anonymity.

The official said this conclusion came as IAEA inspectors were investigating "additional questions about the scope and nature of Iran's nuclear programme" as part of an ongoing investigation since February 2003.

These questions have involved Iran's work with sophisticated P2 centrifuges to enrich uranium and blueprints Iran possesses to make nuclear weapons parts.

"There is a standstill with regard to the resolution of outstanding issues which would clarify the peaceful nature of Iran's programme," the official said.

- AFP