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The head of the UN nuclear watchdog agency will visit Iran to hold new talks on the country's nuclear program, officials announced Monday.
In Vienna, the International Atomic Energy Agency said its secretary general, Mohamed ElBaradei, was accepting an Iranian invitation "to discuss the implementation of nuclear safeguards."
Iran is under growing pressure from abroad to allow the IAEA to carry out unfettered inspections of its nuclear sites.
The main concern is the nuclear plant Russia is helping Iran build in the southern port city of Bushehr. The United States fears it will be used to develop nuclear weapons - not just to generate energy as Iran claims.
Iran's nuclear chief said during a visit to Moscow Monday that his country's cooperation with Russia on atomic energy was in compliance with international law and the ties "rather transparent."
"Nuclear ties between Russia and Iran have bright horizons," Gholamreza Aghazadeh said at a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, according to Interfax news agency.
ElBaradei's spokesman, Mark Gwozdecky, said a date for his visit to Iran was not yet set.
Iran's state-run news agency said Tehran was inviting ElBaradei for talks "to remove technical problems." The statement, by Hasan Rowhani, the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, did not elaborate.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, finishing a visit to Tehran on Monday, said Iran should "unconditionally and quickly" sign an additional protocol to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty that would allow greater oversight of Iran's nuclear sites.
In talks with Straw, Iranian President Mohammad Khatami insisted his country has no intention of developing nuclear weapons and said the IAEA has Iran's "full cooperation," the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported.
Iranian officials have said they have no objection to the inspections in principle, but they want access to advanced nuclear technology so they can develop their nuclear program. They accuse the United States of using its influence to prevent nuclear empowered countries from selling such technology to Iran.
(China Daily July 2, 2003)
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