The US government, which has spearheaded toughening rounds of sanctions against Tehran, added it was studying what "diplomatic next step" to take after Monday's report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

France and Germany -- which along with Britain, Russia and China are locked in carrot-and-stick negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program -- voiced immediate concerns about the report.

The IAEA on Monday expressed "serious concern" that Iran is still hiding information about alleged studies into making nuclear warheads and defying UN demands to suspend uranium enrichment.

The alleged studies comprise a uranium conversion project, high explosives testing and designs for a missile re-entry vehicle, and suggest there may have been a possible military angle to past nuclear work.

The report "refers to the fact that the Iranians are willfully -- trying to willfully withhold information about their activities related to potential weaponization," McCormack told reporters in Washington.

"There are a number of different questions out there about the military's involvement in this nuclear program, about Iran's efforts to fabricate hemispheres of uranium," he said.

"And I'm not sure other than for a weapon why you would do that," McCormack added.

Washington has in the past pointed to IAEA inquiries into Iran's possession of blueprints for making the uranium metal hemispheres that are the core of bombs as signs of military intentions.

McCormack called the new report "very troubling" and "disturbing," adding: "And we'll see what diplomatic next step will flow from this."

The State Department spokesman said the report will have no impact on a so-called "refreshed" package of incentives for Iran to halt its uranium enrichment and reprocessing work.

"The package is set," McCormack said.

European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said he hopes to travel to Iran soon to present the package from the six negotiating powers after meeting Tehran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki over the weekend.

The permanent Security Council members Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States plus Germany have re-worked an offer of political and trade incentives originally made in 2006.

Solana has been struggling to establish high-level talks aimed at getting Iran to accept the package but Tehran refuses to suspend enrichment as a precondition for negotiating.

Iran insists it has the right to enrich uranium to make nuclear fuel to help meet its electricity needs and has so far defied three sets of Security Council resolutions which demand it halt the process.

At highly refined levels, such work can also make the fissile core of an atomic bomb but Iran says its nuclear program is peaceful and has vehemently denied that it is seeking to make weapons with it.

In Paris, French foreign ministry spokeswoman Pascale Andreani said the details mentioned in the report "could be the sign of a possible military dimension of the Iranian nuclear program."

In Berlin, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the report "leaves open a number of questions that we will have to examine very quickly."

earlier related report
IAEA report turns up heat on Iran: experts
Vienna (AFP) May 27 - The UN atomic watchdog seems to be taking a tougher line with Iran on its nuclear programme, accusing it of withholding key information on alleged attempts to make nuclear arms, experts said Tuesday.

The International Atomic Energy Agency is "clearly frustrated by Iran's stonewalling. They want answers," said Joe Cirincione, non-proliferation expert and head of the Washington-based Ploughshares Fund, following the release of the IAEA's latest Iran report late Monday.

The restricted report, a copy of which was obtained by AFP, has been forwarded by the IAEA to the UN Security Council and is due to be discussed by the watchdog's own 35-member board of governors next week.

Using far stronger language than the past, the IAEA expressed "serious concern" that Iran is still hiding information about alleged studies into making nuclear warheads and defying UN demands to suspend uranium enrichment.

The agency said it was "of the view that Iran may have additional information, in particular on high explosives testing and missile-related activities, which could shed more light on the nature of these alleged studies and which Iran should share with agency."

The alleged studies comprise a uranium conversion project, high explosives testing and designs for a missile re-entry vehicle and suggest there may have been a possible military angle to past nuclear work.

Mark Fitzpatrick, non-proliferation expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, noted the unusally strong tenor of the report.

It was "harder on Iran, both in the detail and in the tone," Fitzpatrick said.

There was no "sugar-coated suggestion that Iran has been forthcoming" in addressing the outstanding issues. Instead, the report "clearly refutes Iran's claims that it has done everything it needs to do with regard to the action plan."

A senior official close to the Vienna-based watchdog confirmed there was growing frustration within the agency over Iran's attitude.

The IAEA has been investigating Tehran's nuclear activities for four years, but has so far been unable to say once and for all whether the activities are entirely peaceful.

"We have not got substantive answers and we could have got those earlier," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"I don't see any reason why they cannot provide those" answers, he said. "They know what we need. The questions are clear. We need the answers."

The US ambassador to the IAEA, Gregory Schulte, said Iran had made scant progress in clearing up the outstanding issues, while the French government said it believed the report "confirms the international community's concerns."

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the "leaves open a number of questions that we will have to examine very quickly."

Iran "is still not demonstrating the spirit of cooperation," Steinmeier complained.

Germany belongs to the so-called P5+1 countries, the permanent UN security council members Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, plus Germany, which are negotiating with Iran.

Iran for its part believes it has answered all outstanding questions.

"We have left no question unanswered. We have given all the explanations needed as far as we are concerned," Iran's ambassador to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh insisted, told AFP.

Nevertheless, for Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association in Washington, the IAEA's report was "just another in a series of bad signs."

Iran "is clearly not cooperating on the investigation into possible military-related nuclear experiments and has not provided the Agency with the locations of its centrifuge manufacturing facilities, among other problems," Kimball said.

"On the current trajectory, the current set of UN sanctions will not dissuade Iran from slowly increasing its enrichment capacity, there will be no meaningful talks, and rumours of possible military action will continue," the expert concluded.

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