US softens hard line on Iran

The United States has dropped its demand for the UN atomic watchdog to declare Iran in violation of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, despite its belief Tehran wants to build an atom bomb, Western diplomats said yesterday.

After two days of talks, the UN International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) 35-member Board of Governors on Friday adjourned until Wednesday to allow a chance for diplomats to revise a French, German and British draft resolution condemning Iran's 18-year concealment of sensitive parts of its nuclear programme.

However, Western diplomats said informal talks continued yesterday between Washington and the capitals of the European Union's three biggest states to toughen up the EU trio's proposal, two versions of which US negotiators have rejected as too weak.

Diplomats close to the talks said US officials had abandoned their demand that the resolution contain an explicit reference to Iran's past "non-compliance" with its NPT obligations and that Tehran be reported to the UN Security Council, which could choose to impose economic sanctions.

Diplomats told Reuters that early last week US negotiators had abandoned their demand that Iran be reported to the Council when it became apparent only four other board members - Japan, Canada, Australia and New Zealand - would support this. In exchange, diplomats close to the talks told Reuters that the US, which is convinced Iran wants nuclear weapons, were now helping Britain, France and Germany revise the resolution to include a timetable to keep pressure on Iran to co-operate.

The US has harshly criticised the IAEA for saying in a recent report on Iran that it had "no evidence" to suggest Tehran had a secret weapons programme. US Ambassador to the IAEA, Kenneth Brill, told the board on Friday the phrase "no evidence" was "highly unfortunate" in the light of revelations about Iran's cover-up and secret experiments with plutonium reprocessing and uranium enrichment. He said the IAEA should have used the words "no proof" instead.

Brill said the IAEA's wording had provoked "expressions of disbelief that the institution charged with... scrutinising nuclear proliferation risks was dismissing important facts". IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei reacted strongly, calling the US statement "disingenuous".