Iran: The chief UN nuclear watchdog, Dr Mohamed ElBaradei, has said it will take at least two more weeks to determine whether Iran has complied with a demand to prove it had no nuclear weapons programme.
The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, which Dr ElBaradei heads, gave Tehran a deadline of yesterday to prove it had no nuclear arms programme or be reported to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.
Iran submitted a declaration to the IAEA on October 23rd detailing its nuclear activities, which Washington suspects are a smokescreen for building atomic weapons.
"We are still going through a lot of activities, we have inspection teams in Iran," Dr ElBaradei said during a visit to UN headquarters. "It is too early, but I hope that we will be able to verify what the Iranians have assured us - that this is a comprehensive and accurate declaration.
"They are co-operating, but again, we still have a lot of work to do and I hope the co-operation will continue. This is a work in progress."
In a statement issued in Vienna and New York, he said his agency was making "good progress" in verifying Iran's nuclear activities.
"Sometime towards the end of the second week of November, I will be issuing a report to the \ board of governors with the results at that time of this verification process," he said.
He told reporters in New York he probably would be unable to complete the process by the time he reported to the board, "but I hope we'll have made substantial progress by that time".
In Tehran, Iran's ambassador to the IAEA, Mr Ali Akbar Salehi, told an Iranian news agency that the UN body had been given all the information it needed to produce a report showing Iran was pursuing a purely civilian nuclear energy programme.
"Iran's will is to remove all the agency's ambiguities and to take all necessary steps to enable the agency to present a positive report to its governors' board," Mr Salehi said. - (Reuters)