"We can confirm that director general Grossi will be in Iran on May 6-7 for meetings with senior Iranian officials," a spokesman of the International Atomic Energy Agency told AFP.

His visit next week comes less than three weeks after a reported Israeli strike in the central province of Isfahan in retaliation for Iran's first-ever attack on Israel.

The IAEA and Iranian officials reported "no damage" to nuclear sites in the province.

Concerns have also risen that Iran may further step up its nuclear programme.

The Vienna-based agency has been struggling since 2021 to carry out controls on the programme, which Tehran has expanded even as it denies it wants to make nuclear weapons.

Grossi will take part in "the first International Nuclear Energy Conference" which will be held in Isfahan from May 6-8, Iran's Tasnim news agency reported.

Iran's nuclear chief Mohammad Eslami said in February that Tehran had invited Grossi to visit in May to attend the conference.

The IAEA chief is scheduled to meet with Iranian officials to discuss "nuclear issues," Tasnim reported.

Grossi was last in Iran in March 2023.

In January, Grossi expressed frustration over Iran's nuclear activity in an interview with AFP, saying Tehran was "restricting cooperation in an unprecedented way".

In 2015, Iran signed an agreement with major powers to restrict its nuclear programme in exchange for sanction relief.

But in 2018, then US president Donald Trump unilaterally pulled out of the agreement and reimposed sweeping sanctions, leading to Iran starting to suspend its compliance with limits on its nuclear activities a year later.

In February, Iran said it had started building a new nuclear research reactor in Isfahan, days after it announced it was constructing a nuclear power plant complex in the south.