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Iran Agrees To Answer More Nuclear Questions

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By GEORGE JAHN, The Associated Press

Published: January 14, 2008

VIENNA, Austria - Iran has promised the U.N.'s chief nuclear inspector it will answer all remaining questions about its past nuclear activities within four weeks, including secret activities the United States suspects were linked to a weapons program, officials said Sunday.

The time limit was announced by the spokeswoman for Mohamed ElBaradei, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, at the end of his talks in Tehran with Iranian leaders.

Iran is under two sets of U.N. Security Council sanctions for its refusal to freeze uranium enrichment, a potential pathway to nuclear arms, and Washington is pushing for additional U.N. penalties.

The government in Tehran says it never worked on atomic weapons and wants to enrich uranium only to produce fuel for reactors that would generate electricity.

ElBaradei also was given new information on Iran's "new generation of centrifuges" during weekend talks with Iranian leaders, said his spokeswoman, Melissa Fleming. That issue is a priority for the agency as it tries to establish how far advanced Iran is in developing the technology.

Announcing the deadline, Fleming spoke only in general terms, without mentioning what was being probed by agency experts under a plan agreed to last summer. But diplomats said that investigation is in its final stage, focusing on programs with possible weapons applications.

The probe originally was slated to be completed in December, and the United States and its allies have been chafing at the delay, say diplomats accredited to the IAEA. But they are unlikely to object publicly if the extension allows ElBaradei to reveal details of such secret programs.

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