The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is "sending a team of experts who will be arriving October 15 to visit Brazil to look at possible verification approaches for this facility," IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky told reporters. He was correcting his previous report that the experts would be arriving October 18.

The Brazilian Science and Technology Ministry said its talks with the IAEA in Vienna this week produced "agreement on the principles on which guarantees on the Resende enrichment plant (near Rio de Janeiro) will be focused.

"The Brazilian government and the IAEA are finalizing a formula that will allow the agency to implement technically viable guarantees at the Resende plant, and at the same time preserve the country's technological and commercial secrets," the ministry said in a statement.

The IAEA spokesman said, "We've made some progress but we remain in discussions with the Brazilian authorities on this issue."

A Western diplomat close to the IAEA said no deal had been struck in the affair that comes as the IAEA is cracking down on Iran over an alleged nuclear weapons program.

The US government said in April that it was confident Brazil was not seeking to develop nuclear weapons.

The Brazilian ministry stressed that IAEA inspectors "will only have access to parts indispensible to the application of guarantees, without revealing the cores of the centrifuges.

"After a five-month suspension, negotiations on the inspection of the plant have resumed," Science and Technology spokeswoman Vera Canfran told AFP. She said Brazil and the IAEA "were agreed on the principles on which the accord will be based."

She said the accord would not be signed before the IAEA team of experts comes to Brazil in October.

"It's a very sensitive subject but I believe our government has a terrific amount of confidence in Brazil," said Assistant US Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere Roger Noriega.

Non-proliferation specialists say that if the United States and IAEA do not act to curtail Brazil's program, or at least insist on inspections, it could undermine White House calls for Iran and North Korea to halt their efforts to enrich uranium.

Brazil, which has one of the world's largest uranium reserves, denied IAEA inspectors access in February and March to a uranium-enriching facility in Resende, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, saying it wanted to protect industry trade secrets.

IAEA director general Mohamed ElBaradei has said Brazil should not be an exception to IAEA norms.

Uranium enrichment makes fuel for civilian reactors but can also be used to make the explosive core of atomic bombs. The IAEA is mandated by the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to make sure member states do not divert nuclear material for military purposes.

"It's all about visual access but not too much visual access," the Western diplomat said, adding the IAEA would have to place cameras at the plant to monitor the enrichment activities and make sure nuclear materials are not being diverted.

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