Iran: The head of the UN nuclear watchdog, Mohammed ElBaradei, was expected to fly home from Tehran today after failing in his mission concerning Iran's suspected weapons programme.
Unless there is a dramatic turnaround by Iran in the next fortnight, Mr ElBaradei will deliver a negative report to the UN security council at the end of the month.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said last night in Washington the UN should look at chapter 7 of its charter to force Iran to comply with international obligations over its nuclear plans. Chapter 7 can lead to sanctions and eventually the use of military action against a UN member state deemed to have refused to comply with a Security Council directive.
Mr ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), failed to secure any concessions from Iranian leaders, who told him they did not intend to halt Iran's uranium enrichment programme as demanded by the security council. The West claims Iran's pursuit of uranium enrichment is intended to secure a nuclear weapons capability, a charge Iran denies.
"We have not seen diversion of nuclear material for weapons purposes, but the picture is still hazy," Mr ElBaradei said.
Iran reached a watershed when its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said on Tuesday the country had joined the "nuclear club" by achieving a uranium-enrichment rate of 3.5 per cent; this is a low-grade enrichment suitable for power stations but a much higher standard than previously attained.
Mr Ahmadinejad refused a request to meet Mr ElBaradei, saying: "We will not hold talks with anyone about the Iranian nation's right [ to enrichment]."
He added: "Our situation has changed completely. We are a nuclear country and speak to others from [ that] position."
The Islamic Republic news agency said he was unconcerned about anger from the West. Mr ElBaradei said his inspectors would report to the IAEA board. The security council may then face a dilemma over what action, if any, it can take against Iran.
Meanwhile, China is to send an envoy on arms control to Tehran and Moscow, and amid alarm in the Arab world over the prospect of Iran having a nuclear weapon, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, the Egyptian foreign minister, said Cairo could not "accept the appearance of a military nuclear force in the region".
Former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said in a lecture in Damascus that Iran was determined to pursue nuclear technology and would respond if attacked by the US or Israel.
The US says it wants a diplomatic solution but has left open the option of military action.
Despite three years of investigation, the IAEA says it still cannot verify that Iran's nuclear programme is entirely peaceful, but it has found no hard proof of efforts to build atomic weapons. Iran says its programme is only for power generation. An IAEA spokeswoman said senior inspectors would travel to Iran next week. In Vienna, an agency diplomat, who declined to be named, said the presence in the team of Olli Heinonen, Mr ElBaradei's deputy for safeguards issues, suggested Iran was ready to provide some missing information.
The UN Security Council has told Iran to halt all sensitive atomic activities and on March 29th asked the agency to report on its compliance in 30 days.
"I will continue to make my best efforts to make sure that this issue is resolved through peaceful ways," Mr ElBaradei said after talks with Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council.
He also met Gholamreza Aghazadeh, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation.
French foreign minister Philippe Douste-Blazy dismissed talk of military action against Iran as "absolutely not topical" to defuse the stand-off.
- (Guardian service, additional reporting by Reuters)