UN finds fault with Iran on nuke obligations

The International Atomic Energy Agency found that the Islamic republic was taking steps to put things right. But the United States, fresh from war in neighboring Iraq over alleged banned weapons, called the report on Iran "deeply troubling."T

Washington says Tehran wants to develop nuclear arms under the guise of building power reactors with Russian help, despite having signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

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"Iran has failed to meet its obligations under its safeguards agreement with respect to the reporting of nuclear material, the subsequent processing and use of that material and the declaration of facilities where that material was stored and processed," one passage of the eight-page IAEA report read.

The report will be presented by the agency's chief, Mohamed ElBaradei, to the governors in Vienna June 16.

"We have answers for all the points mentioned," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told Reuters.

"We have done nothing which violates our commitments."

Hawks around President Bush have hardened rhetoric against Iran since the Iraq war, raising the specter of military action. But Bush, who last year included Iran in an "axis of evil" with Iraq and North Korea, denies any plan to attack it.

"I'm not predicting any specific action at this point," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

"We will look at the report together with other members of the board... and then we'll decide together what might be appropriate at that time when we get together."

The report said Iran imported 1.8 metric tons of natural uranium in 1991 but did not declare the import or facilities for handling it to the IAEA until this year. It said this amount of uranium could yield 4.6 ounces of enriched uranium for nuclear fuel.