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Britain, France and Germany proposed a draft resolution to the UN atomic agency Tuesday calling for a probe into Iran's suspected nuclear weapons program to be toughened and wrapped up within months, despite new Iranian threats to break off cooperation. The draft picked up on UN nuclear chief Mohamed ElBaradei's hardening the tone of the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) investigation into Iran's nuclear program, which is now more than a year old. ElBaradei told the IAEA's 35-nation board of governors Monday: "It is essential for the integrity and credibility of the inspection process that we are able to bring these issues to a close within the next few months and provide the international community with the assurances it urgently seeks regarding Iran's nuclear activities." Intense talks were underway at IAEA headquarters in Vienna Tuesday, with Iran pressing for a softening of the text after leaders in Tehran reacted angrily to the fresh pressure from the UN nuclear watchdog by threatening to reconsider cooperation with inspectors. The new conservative speaker of parliament, Gholam Ali Hadad-Adel, warned that the assembly may not ratify Iran's signature of the additional protocol to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) allowing tougher UN inspections. "The three European countries are demanding parliament adopt the protocol, but I say to France, Germany and Britain not to tell the Iranian parliament what to do," Ali Hadad-Adel told deputies. President Mohammad Khatami has meanwhile told Britain, France and Germany in writing to ease the pressure, or risk pushing Iran to consider "other alternatives," according to press reports. Khatami also reportedly accused the so-called Euro-3 of aligning themselves with Iran's arch-enemy, the United States. The United States is pressing for Iran to be hauled up before the UN Security Council for allegedly developing nuclear weapons in secret, but has not won support for this yet at the IAEA. Tehran has consistently denied the allegations. A diplomat in Vienna close to negotiations on the draft resolution told AFP that the three big European powers, helped by the United States and other members of the 35-nation IAEA board of governors, had revised their original text after ElBaradei's speech. Calls to resolve the probe in a few months and echoes of ElBaradei's criticism of Iran's lack of cooperation had now been incorporated into the draft, according to a copy made available to AFP. The draft "deplores... that overall Iran's cooperation has not been as full, timely and proactive as it should have been" and "underlines that with the passage of time, it is becoming ever more important that Iran work proactively with the agency." The text was softened in one point, however, backing off from a demand that Iran halt uranium conversion operations and construction of a heavy water research reactor that are a key part of the nuclear fuel cycle. The draft now merely asks Iran to "reconsider" these decisions. Iran is pressing for this clause to be dropped entirely, an Asian diplomat told AFP. Meanwhile, a US demand to give Iran a deadline in the revised text for compliance had been rejected since it was better to give "a sense of urgency at this stage (to resolve the issue) but avoid any idea of deadlines," which could incite a confrontation with Iran, another diplomat said. Elbaradei told the IAEA board that the UN agency had been aware of "Iran's undeclared nuclear program" for almost two years but had been kept from getting to the bottom of it due to "less than satisfactory" cooperation from Iran. On Monday the United States called on Iran to come clean on the extent of its nuclear ambitions and demanded that the UN nuclear watchdog press Tehran this week to cooperate with inspectors. The IAEA board is not expected to debate the draft resolution in plenary session until later in the week, possibly Thursday or Friday, diplomats said. All rights reserved. Copyright 2003 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse. Quick Links
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