IAEA chief, Germany urge Iran to halt atomic work

BERLIN, Mar 27 (Reuters) The head of the UN nuclear watchdog and Germany's foreign minister urged Iran today to halt all uranium enrichment work to help revive collapsed nuclear talks between Tehran and the European Union.

Mohamed ElBaradei, director-general of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told reporters that in light of concerns that Iran's nuclear programme may not be entirely peaceful it was important for Tehran to resume a moratorium of uranium that it ended earlier this year.

''We are not in a position today to say that (Iran's nuclear) programme is exclusively for peaceful purposes,'' ElBaradei said after a meeting with Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

''We would like Iran to suspend its enrichment programme.'' Tehran insists its programme is aimed at the peaceful generation of electricity. But Germany, the rest of the European Union and the United States believe Iran is secretly developing the capability to produce atomic weapons.

ElBaradei said he hoped the result of the UN Security Council's ''presidential statement'' on Iran's nuclear programme, currently being drafted in New York, would be the return of all parties to the negotiating table.

Two-and-a-half years of talks between Iran and the EU -- spearheaded by Germany, France and Britain -- reached an impasse earlier this year after Iran resumed research on its uranium enrichment programme.

COUNCIL DEBATES DRAFT Asked to comment on Iran's completion of a 164-machine ''cascade'' of atomic centrifuges at its Natanz enrichment plant, both ElBaradei and Steinmeier urged Iran to refrain from even small-scale enrichment work.

''Iran must suspend all enrichment work, including research,'' Steinmeier said, reiterating the EU's condition on a revival of talks with Iran.

He said there was still disagreement at the Security Council on the wording of the draft statement that would call on Iran to suspend its nuclear fuel programme again and answer all the IAEA's outstanding questions about Tehran's nuclear activities.

Steinmeier said he hoped the statement, once agreed by the Council, would bring Iran to its senses but added that it was unclear what if any impact it would have.

''Whether or not it will work is an open question,'' he said.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrives in Berlin on Thursday to discuss Iran and other pressing Middle East questions with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Reuters SI BD2227