Non-aligned states to back Iran at IAEA

VIENNA, June 13 (Reuters) Non-aligned states will back Iran's right to nuclear fuel production at a UN meeting this week, unmoved by US calls to join efforts to get Tehran to stop enriching uranium, diplomats said.

UN Security Council powers offered Iran a package of incentives last week and Washington has nudged Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) states to endorse it at a session of the International Atomic Energy Agency governing board.

Iran is still considering the proposals.

If the 15 NAM nations on the 35-member IAEA board backed the US calls, it would help Washington and the European Union deflect Iranian assertions it is being bullied by powerful countries bent on denying the Islamic state nuclear energy.

But diplomats from the non-aligned members said the group would reissue a declaration made in Malaysia on May 30 backing Iran's right to nuclear work.

''We won't make a new statement referring to the current (big power) proposal or make supportive noises in this regard,'' said a NAM diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity.

''NAM does not want to pronounce on a proposal that basically no one knows full details about,'' the diplomat added.

Iran says its atomic drive is meant to generate electricity.

The West, noting Iran has the world's second largest reserves of oil and gas, suspects Tehran is concealing an atom bomb project since it hid enrichment research from the IAEA for almost 20 years and has called for Israel's destruction.

Elements of the package of trade and technology sweeteners offered to Iran by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany have been leaked by diplomats. They include unspecified penalties should Iran rebuff the offer.

NAM countries are worried that making Iran abandon its nuclear fuel enrichment plans would set a precedent preventing other developing states pursuing an atomic energy option.

They oppose any resort to sanctions as mooted by the West, seeing no justification so long as Iran has not been proved to be using enrichment technology to build atom bombs in violation of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

STRAINS AMONG BIG POWERS TOO Tensions also resurfaced within the six powers, the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany, who closed ranks on June 1 after much wrangling to finalise the Iran offer.

Russia and China, which insisted the six dilute references to possible sanctions in the offer, were now refusing a French proposal to have the group, in a joint statement to the board, push Iran to embrace the package, an EU diplomat said.

''They didn't say why. But they want to maintain ambiguity, balance with several balls in the air, not look one-sided. Their trade interests are a factor,'' he said, alluding to Russian and Chinese stakes in Iran's energy industry.

In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Jiang Yu said: ''Only when we resume dialogue can we resolve differences ... We do not wish to see new disturbances in the West Asia as a result of this issue.'' The IAEA board was to take stock of the dispute in a debate on Wednesday. A series of statements was expected but no resolutions.

A board vote on Feb. 4 to refer Iran to the Security Council was joined by most NAM members after heavy Western lobbying.

But two influential non-aligned giants, South Africa and Indonesia, abstained, demonstrating continued misgivings in the developing world about singling out Iran.

The May 30 NAM declaration did not criticise Iran's nuclear efforts and said it was cooperating with the IAEA, although the agency has said Tehran continues to impede inquiries into the nature of its programme and has barred short-notice IAEA inspections designed to expose undeclared atomic work.

The NAM statement stressed the ''basic and inalienable right of all states'' to develop atomic energy for peaceful purposes.

Reuters SY GC2330