Unnamed Western officials told the Financial Times that the International Atomic Energy Agency's findings on Iran would be included in a progress report prepared by Mohamed ElBaradei, the agency's head, ahead of an IAEA board meeting in March.

A western diplomat told the Financial Times that the omissions detracted from Iran's credibility but did not add to Iran's known capabilities.

Centrifuges can be used to enrich uranium, a key ingredient in a nuclear bomb.

Under international pressure, notably from the United States, Iran pledged last November to suspend uranium enrichment as a confidence-building measure to show the IAEA it was not secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons.

And in December Tehran ended months of wrangling by signing a key UN treaty protocol allowing surprise inspections of its nuclear facilities.

But Iran has interpreted the pledge over suspending uranium enrichment in a narrow sense, stopping such activities at its Natanz nuclear fuel-making plant, but continuing to assemble centrifuges in case it decides to resume making highly-enriched uranium, which can be used both as fuel for reactors or to make a bomb, according to diplomats.

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