IAEA ratifies Iran atom aid cut

VIENNA, Mar 8 (Reuters) UN nuclear agency governors today ratified cuts in technical aid to Iran over concern that Tehran might be trying to build nuclear bombs.

The move by the 35-nation board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) followed UN sanctions passed in December that ban transfer of technology or expertise to Iran that might be of use in producing nuclear fuel.

Only two other states in the IAEA's 50-year history have been stripped of nuclear aid over fear about possible diversions into bombmaking -- North Korea and Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

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

Western powers suspect a hidden agenda to build nuclear arms and four years of IAEA investigations often stonewalled by Iran have failed to verify Iran's intentions are entirely peaceful.

By consensus, the board adopted a decision by the IAEA's Secretariat to freeze or curb 22 of the 55 aid projects, closing ranks on an issue that earlier had split the governing body.

Western powers such as the United States and France who bankroll the IAEA's special aid programmes and drew up sanctions against Iran originally demanded more sweeping reductions.

IRAN DEFIANT Ahead of the widely expected decision, Iranian envoy Ali Asghar Soltanieh condemned it and blamed the UN Security Council, saying it had illegally undermined the IAEA's professional independence.

Soltanieh said none of the projects had anything to do with nuclear fuel production and this would continue no matter what.

The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) bloc of developing states, to which Iran belongs, had opposed cuts. They feared a precedent would be set jeopardising their own access to IAEA aid for nuclear energy seen as key to modernising their economies.

They also noted there is no hard evidence Iran is abusing IAEA resources for military ends, although doubts abound.

But fears of an unprecedented, debilitating political dispute on the board eased last month after a Secretariat review of technical aid for Iran.

''Several members underlined the need to remain vigilant to ensure that IAEA assistance to Iran be fully consistent with the resolution,'' current board chairman Slovenia said in a summary of the closed-door deliberations, referring to Western powers.

''(Several members) stressed technical cooperation should not be subject to any political conditions,'' it said of the NAM.

''No one declared dissatisfaction with the Secretariat's choices, which were made in an extremely professional manner,'' Ramzy Ezzeldin Ramzy, Egypt's envoy to the IAEA, told reporters.

The blocked projects related to nuclear power planning and technical and security measures in developing nuclear fuel.

Projects that were spared involve radiopharmaceuticals and isotopes for medical, agriculture and humanitarian purposes.

Iran ignored a February 21 UN Security Council deadline to stop refining uranium and took initial steps to shift from research-level enrichment to ''industrial-scale'' production.

But US-led efforts to broaden sanctions face resistance from veto-wielding Russia and China, big trade partners of Iran.

REUTERS AKJ BST1719