Quoted by the state news agency IRNA, Kharazi said late Tuesday that Iran is expecting the arrival of the experts "in the next few days".

"After these people come to Iran and we listen to their reasons and justifications, then we will decide whether to sign the IAEA's additional protocol," he was quoted by state news agency IRNA.

The international community, suspicious that Tehran has a secret weapons programme, is pressing it to sign an additional protocol to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) allowing the IAEA to carry out thorough inspections of the country's installations without prior declaration.

On July 28, IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said: "A first IAEA team of judicial experts will go in the first week of August on a 48-hour mission to explain how the protocol will work if Tehran signs".

A second team will carry out routine inspections ahead of a report on Iran's nuclear facilities by the IAEA due to be released on September 8, she added.

Earlier this month, European Union foreign ministers expressed their "increasing concern" over Iran's nuclear programme and demanded Iran's "unconditional" acceptance of the additional NPT protocol.

The EU, which is negotiating a key trade pact with Iran, said it would review its cooperation with Tehran in September, when the IAEA delivers its latest report.

Iran denies the allegations, spearheaded by its arch foe the United States, that it is covertly developing nuclear weapons under the guise of a civilian nuclear programme which Washington says it does not need, being rich in oil.

Last week, Iranian President Mohammad Khatami accused the United States of seeking to overthrow the Islamic regime and of using the nuclear weapons allegations as a pretext.

Iran's representative to the IAEA, Ali Akbar Salehi, warned Sunday that if the protocol was not signed, there was a real danger the agency might decide at its September meeting to refer Iran's case to the UN Security Council, as threatened by Washington.

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