Iran promises 'continued cooperation' with IAEA

Iran's President Mohammad Khatami has promised continued cooperation with the United Nations atomic watchdog in its examination…

Iran's President Mohammad Khatami has promised continued cooperation with the United Nations atomic watchdog in its examination of the country's nuclear programme.

Mr Khatami, however, described the UN resolution authorizing the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) work in Iran as "inappropriate".

The ISNA student news agency report him saying has no worries about the "transparency of its peaceful nuclear programme."

It is not know if Mr Khatami's comment is a departure from the Iranians exisitng policy.

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Iran had said it will only give IAEA inspectors limited access to nuclear sites and refused to halt uranium enrichment.

Earlier this month the IAEA governing board gave Iran until October 31st to prove it has no secret atomic weapons programme, as the United States alleges.

The head of the IAEA Mr Mohammed El Baradei said Tehran would miss the deadline unless it began to give him "full cooperation" soon.

The agency has warned Iran that failure to dispel suspicions that it is secretly building a nuclear weapons capability it could be reported to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.

IAEA officials began talks in Tehran earlier today over the extent of current inspections.

Iran says its nuclear scientists are trying to generate electricity from atomic energy, not build nuclear bombs as suspected by the United States.