UN watchdog still hopes for Iran nuclear talks

UNITED NATIONS - Iran has yet to satisfy UN watchdogs that its nuclear programme seeks only to produce electric power and not bombs, the head of the UN nuclear agency told the General Assembly on Monday.

Iran has neither suspended its nuclear enrichment-related activities nor been transparent enough to resolve all the outstanding questions of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency since August 31, when the IAEA issued its last report on Iran, said Director General Mohamed ElBaradei.

"The IAEA continues therefore to be unable to confirm the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear programme, which is a matter of serious concern," said ElBaradei in his annual report to the 192-nation UN body.

But he said he remained hopeful that Iran ultimately would enter negotiations aimed at addressing both international fears about Iran's aims and Tehran's own worries about its security.

Tehran was ready for unconditional talks, Iran's deputy UN ambassador, Mehdi Danesh-Yazdi, told the assembly.

Iran "has demonstrated its readiness to resume negotiations without any preconditions with its counterparts, to ensure them of the peaceful nature of its nuclear programme," he said.

Calls for talks have so far failed over European powers' demands that Tehran must first either suspend its enrichment-related programmes or vow to do so once talks begin.

ElBaradei also expressed "deep and serious concern" about North Korea's October 9 test of a nuclear weapon at a time an informal global moratorium is in place on such testing.

A nuclear North Korea "is a clear setback to international commitments to move towards nuclear disarmament," he said, calling for all states to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, the 10-year-old convention banning nuclear tests.

The pact has been ratified by 135 nations but 10 nations who have failed to do so -- among them Iran and North Korea -- are considered capable of producing nuclear arms.

The 15-nation UN Security Council adopted a resolution imposing sanctions on North Korea less than a week after its test. The measure barred trade in dangerous arms and authorised nations to stop cargo entering and leaving North Korea to check for weapons of mass destruction and related supplies.

The council is now working on a new resolution that would slap sanctions on Tehran over its refusal to obey a council demand that it suspend all nuclear enrichment activities.

- REUTERS