Iran today barred entry to 38 inspectors from the watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency after hardliners demanded retaliation for UN sanctions imposed on Tehran last month.
The IAEA confirmed Iranian word of the ban but said this would not handicap its monitoring of a plant where Iran plans soon to expand from experimental into industrial-scale output of nuclear fuel in defiance of a UN Security Council resolution.
Iran's ISNA news agency said the move was a "first step" in limiting cooperation with the IAEA in line with a demand made by the hardline parliament after the Council agreed the sanctions.
The West accuses Iran of seeking to build atom bombs under the cover of a professed civilian nuclear energy programme, while Tehran insists it aims solely to generate electricity.
"Iran has decided not to give entry permission to 38 inspectors from the IAEA and has announced this limitation to the IAEA officially," the head of parliament's Foreign Affairs and National Security Commission, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, said.
Iranian government officials were not available for comment. They had said earlier Tehran would continue basic cooperation with IAEA inspections and had no intention of quitting the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) over the new sanctions.
"We are discussing with Iran its request for withdrawing the designation of certain safeguards inspectors," the IAEA said in a short statement issued by its Vienna headquarters.
"It should be noted however, that there are a sufficient number of inspectors designated for Iran and the IAEA is able to perform its inspection activities in accordance with Iran's Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement," it said.
IAEA inspectors carry out regular checks of Iran's atomic sitesto try to verify it is not diverting materials into bomb production invviolation of the NPT.
The IAEA has more than 200 inspectors in its Iran pool. Many carry out jobs in Iran periodically in addition to work in other countries, with a smaller number assigned solely to Iran.
A diplomat versed in IAEA operations in Iran said only a few of the banned inspectors were believed to be Iran specialists who help prepare sensitive reports on Iranian nuclear activity for the agency's 35-nation board of governors.