The UN atomic agency adopted a resolution on Monday in Vienna endorsing a total freeze by Iran on all uranium enrichment fuel activities in a deal worked out with EU negotiators Britain, Germany and France.

Iran agreed to the deal amid threats from the United States -- which alleges that the Islamic Republic is secretly developing nuclear weapons -- to refer Tehran to the UN Security Council which could impose sanctions.

In return, Iran was promised considerable and wide-ranging rewards by the European trio who would like the freeze to become permanent.

Items up for discussion at the December talks include an EU-Iran trade agreement, the backing of Iran's admission to the World Trade Organization (WTO), helping Tehran obtain peaceful nuclear technology including a light-water research reactor, and working towards a Middle East zone free of weapons of mass destruction, according to a confidential EU paper obtained by

But the negotiations are set to be tough.

"In these negotiations it is possible for Iran to make demands that can't be met, such as immediate moves towards a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East," Gary Samore of London's International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) think tank told AFP.

This would be a way of putting pressure on the Europeans, who have put their diplomatic credibility on the line and who want Iran's nuclear suspension to become permanent, something Tehran refuses.

The Iranians are going to be pushing to "preserve as much of the fuel cycle program as they can, including things like research. All of that will come clear when the real negotiations begin in December," Samore said.

And the big question is whether the United States will sign on to the deal, since concessions such as Iran joining the WTO and meeting security concerns are impossible without US participation, said analyst David Albright from the Washington think tank the Institute for Science and Internationl Security (ISIS).

"I think the United States has a tremendous ability to disrupt" the EU-Iran talks, Albright said.

"Iran can say, if the United States doesn't participate in this deal and our security concerns, why should we give up nuclear weapons," Albright said.

Tehran was already crowing that it had forced the United States to agree to to a toned-down resolution at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Monday.

Top Iranian national security official Hassan Rowhani said Tuesday Iran had "proved that, in an international institution, we are capable of isolating the United States. And that is a great victory."

US delegation chief to the IAEA Jackie Sanders warned Washington does not trust Tehran to keep its word and is watching carefully.

"We believe Iran's nuclear weapons programme poses a growing threat to international peace and security, and to the global nonproliferation regime," Sanders said.

"Right now Washington is comfortable sitting on the sidelines," Samore said. "If the negotiations succeed with the United States not having to do anything, then Washington will be quietly happy."

But the United States will have to choose one way or another when it is "clear that Washington's participation is necessary in order to guarantee the success of the negotiations," Samore said.

Albright added Russia could provide the technology or material for a light-water reactor, but the United States could also be crucial in this and certainly needed if Iran is get help with its civil aviation, another dossier the EU is ready to discuss.

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