North Korea deal shows the way on Iran -ElBaradei

DUBLIN, Feb 16 (Reuters) The pact to halt North Korea's nuclear arms programme shows the United States must engage with Iran to settle the dispute over its atomic ambitions, the head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog said.

Addressing university students at Trinity College, Dublin, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Mohamed ElBaradei welcomed the North Korea arms-for-fuel deal as ''very much a positive step''.

He said he hoped IAEA officials would travel to Pyongyang in the next couple of weeks for talks ''to get the ball rolling'' on verifying that North Korea had disabled its ability to produce weapons-grade plutonium.

But he stressed that the North Korean breakthrough had come through dialogue and direct involvement by the United States in contrast with the current speculation regarding a possible US military attack on Iran.

''When the US started to talk directly to North Korea we started to see results and I'd like to see the same thing happen with Iran,'' he said yesterday.

''We have to stop this heresy of talking about military attack (against Iran),'' a move that would be ''completely catastrophic and completely counterproductive'', ElBaradei said.

US officials have insisted in recent weeks that Washington is not planning a military attack on Iran, which it accuses of having a covert atomic arms programme, despite the unusual presence of two US aircraft carriers in the Gulf.

Iran says its nuclear programme is for civilian ends such as electricity generation but has refused to comply with a UN Security Council demand that it halt all nuclear fuel work.

The IAEA will report to the Security Council on Feb. 21, a UN deadline for Iran to freeze such activities or face harsher sanctions than have already been imposed on Tehran.

But ElBaradei said sanctions alone would not work.

''You've applied a stick, now it's time to start thinking about a carrot,'' he said.

''The more you give, the more you get,'' he added, again drawing parallels with North Korea's agreement to disable plutonium production and readmit IAEA inspectors in return for 950,000 tonnes of emergency fuel oil and steps to lift trade sanctions and normalise ties with Washington.

While Iran still had ''to come clean'' about all aspects of a programme regarding which the IAEA has many unanswered questions, there was no proof it had an atomic weapons programme and even if it did, most estimates suggested it was at least four years from acquiring such arms, ElBaradei said.

''So Iran is not an imminent threat ... which means we have ample time to find a solution,'' he said, adding this would come only through direct talks between Iran and the United States.

''Both sides have a lot to gain (from talking) and a lot to lose from not talking,'' he said.

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