West complains to IAEA chief over Iran atom remarks

VIENNA, May 25 (Reuters) US and allied envoys met the UN nuclear watchdog chief today to voice concern about remarks he made suggesting it was too late to get Iran to shut down its uranium enrichment programme, diplomats said.

Iran has made advances towards creating a nuclear energy industry recently while big powers have stuck to a demand, which Tehran has repeatedly rejected as humiliating, that it suspended all enrichment-related activity to win talks on trade benefits.

International Atomic Energy Agency director Mohamed ElBaradei is increasingly concerned Iran's festering stand-off with the West could lead to conflict engulfing the Middle East.

He irked big powers by suggesting in recent interviews that their demand, mirrored in UN Security Council resolutions, for zero enrichment in Iran to prevent it gaining nuclear knowledge was obsolete since Tehran could already refine uranium.

ElBaradei called for a face-saving compromise that would cap Iranian enrichment activity at its current modest scale, before it reaches industrial proportions yielding large stockpiles of fuel convertible into material for atom bombs.

The point of the visit by US, British, French and Japanese ambassadors to the IAEA to ElBaradei's office was to stress that Security Council policy was law, adopted unanimously, and that they wanted his support, diplomats said.

''We made our concerns clear about the need for a complete suspension. We felt his published remarks were not helpful at this time,'' a British diplomat told Reuters.

US mission spokesman Matt Boland said the four envoys and ElBaradei had a ''good constructive meeting. They all agreed on the importance of Iran fully cooperating with the IAEA and complying with its international obligations.'' One diplomat said the ambassadors asked ElBaradei to clarify his remarks. IAEA officials had no immediate comment.

DEFIANT IRAN EXPANDING ENRICHMENT The encounter came two days after an IAEA report said Iran was starting to enrich uranium in substantial amounts with 1,300 centrifuge machines. Iran was likely to have 3,000 installed by midsummer, laying the foundation for ''industrial'' production.

Citing Iran's past nuclear secrecy and continued evasion of UN inspector inquiries, Western powers fear Tehran is seeking atom bombs behind the facade of a civilian nuclear energy drive.

Iran, facing a third round of harsher sanctions for ignoring another UN Security Council deadline this week to stop enriching, says it wants only another source of electricity so it can export more of its huge but finite oil reserves.

Western officials said ElBaradei's proposal for low-level enrichment would still give Iran time and practice to perfect the technology and seemed to challenge international consensus.

A diplomat close to the IAEA said ElBaradei was not trying to undercut the Security Council or the United States and its allies.

''He just feels Western strategy is not working. Iran is not going to go for a suspension. ElBaradei feels things are at a standstill and creative thinking is needed to stop this slide to confrontation,'' said a diplomat close to the IAEA.

Diplomats said Germany, the third big EU state among the six powers crafting Iran policy, did not join the meeting with ElBaradei. Some German officials are receptive to his views.

Reuters RN GC2128