The chief of the UN nuclear watchdog said on Monday Iran was still resisting investigation into its atomic program, but he welcomed a big-power offer of incentives to Tehran to resolve the crisis.

Iran's ambassador to the IAEA Aliasghar Soltaniyeh pulls some papers out of his briefcase at the beginning of a board of governors meeting in Vienna's U.N. headquarters, June 12, 2006. [Reuters]

Iran earlier ruled out any compromise on its right to enrich uranium, without rejecting outright the package offered by six major nations on condition it halts its work on nuclear fuel.

Tehran restated its position just before the International Atomic Energy Agency's governing board began meeting in Vienna.

"It (is) clear that the agency has not made much progress in resolving outstanding verification issues," IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei said in a keynote speech to the board.

"I remain convinced that the way forward lies through dialogue and mutual accommodation," he said.

Diplomats said the IAEA would debate Iran but pass no resolutions, to avoid any diplomatic upset while Tehran considers its response to the big-power initiative.

"Iran's view on the nuclear fuel cycle has been announced ... we have obtained this technology, it is our obvious right and we do not negotiate over our obvious nuclear rights," Iranian government spokesman Gholamhossein Elham said in Tehran.

President Bush has said Iran has weeks, not months, to decide whether to accept the deal.

"The G8 foreign ministers' meeting at the end of the month will obviously be a time to see where we stand with Iran," a State Department official said on Monday.

Ministers from the Group of Eight industrialized nations meet on June 29-30 ahead of a G8 summit on July 15-17.

The official, who asked not to be named, said the IAEA board meeting was not a diplomatic deadline for the negotiations.

The nuclear dispute intensified in February when the IAEA referred Tehran to the U.N. Security Council over its history of hiding atomic research and obstructing IAEA investigations.

Last week the United States, France, Germany, Britain, Russia and China offered Iran incentives to stop making nuclear fuel. Tehran has repeatedly vowed to pursue such work.

Page:

1

2