EU powers at IAEA urge Iran to take Nuke timeout

Vienna, Mar 8: EU powers urged Iran yesterday to embrace a UN idea of a ''timeout'' from nuclear activity they fear could yield atom bombs, saying sanctions they sponsored against Tehran would be simultaneously suspended.

Iran rejected the overture, insisting its bid for nuclear energy was peaceful, legal and non-negotiable. Tehran said it shared Europe's wish for talks to resolve the standoff but only on ways to assure the West it had no covert nuclear arms agenda.

The EU appeal, coupled with condemnation of Iran's effort to speed up uranium enrichment past a February 21 UN Security Council deadline for it to stop, came at a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency's board of governors.

Members of the 35-nation board were expected tomorrow to ratify sharp cuts in IAEA technical aid to Iran to uphold UN sanctions banning exports of materials or expertise to Tehran of possible use in making nuclear fuel.

Tehran says its nuclear programme, anchored on uranium enrichment that can yield fuel for power plants or, if taken to higher degrees, bombs, is meant only to generate electricity.

But four years of IAEA investigations have failed to verify Iran's nuclear intentions are entirely peaceful.

In a statement to the board, France, Germany and Britain, ''EU3'' co-sponsors of initial UN sanctions slapped on Iran in December, deplored Iran's efforts to boost research-level enrichment into ''industrial scale'' production of nuclear fuel.

They condemned Iran's refusal to let the IAEA set up remote monitoring cameras in its plant at Natanz and its ban, in reprisal for sanctions, on 38 agency inspectors from Western states and refusal to accept 10 replacement candidates.

''Iran is contesting routine measures like electronic surveillance. (All this) provokes grave concerns ... Iran has chosen to do precisely the opposite of cooperation and transparency,'' said the EU3 statement.

But it said Western leaders remained fully committed to seeking a negotiated solution. ''This is why we appeal insistently to Iran to seize the offer of a double suspension floated by the IAEA director.''

MUTUAL ''TIMEOUT'' PROPOSAL

IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei proposed in January that Iran and the UN Security Council simultaneously suspend enrichment related activity and sanctions respectively to break a deadlock over conditions for reviving negotiations over the crisis.

But Iran has refused to mothball its nuclear programme as a precondition for talks on big trade and technology benefits offered by six world powers last June. Tehran is loath to cede its main bargaining chip before talks begin, diplomats say.

''We find no technical or legal grounds for a (timeout),'' Ali Asghar Soltanieh, ambassador to the IAEA, told reporters.

''We are ready to ... negotiate a mechanism to assure the international community that our activities will never be diverted to non-peaceful activities. This is our best offer.

''Iran is a master of nuclear technology and enrichment. The Americans do not want the world to know this reality, (but) they have to swallow this reality ...'' The United States, EU3, Russia and China are now negotiating to widen the preliminary UN sanctions adopted in December.

Western, Asian and developing nations on the board also urged North Korea to honour a February 13 deal to disable its nuclear arms programme, including plutonium production, by mid-April and readmit IAEA inspectors to verify the shutdown.

Japan said it was crucial North Korea ''provide a complete declaration of all nuclear programmes'', which Washington has said includes uranium enrichment but which Pyongyang has denied.

ElBaradei will visit Pyongyang on March 13-14 to iron out details of redeploying inspectors to seal the Yongbyon complex.

REUTERS

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