IAEA won't guarantee Iran probe deadline

Mohamed ElBaradei, the chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, also repeated that his investigation has not definitely established whether Iran is trying to make nuclear weapons as Washington asserts.

"We haven't seen any concrete proof that there is a weapons program," he told zeporters. "Can we say everything is peaceful? Obviously we are not at that stage."

The meeting, which opened Monday, has become a main battleground for Iran and the United States, which wants to take Iran to the UN Security Council for alleged violations of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

Diplomats attending the meeting said the United States was circulating a tougher version of a draft resolution originally written by France, Germany and Britain. The changes, designed to reduce Iran's wiggle room for dispellino suspicions abo}t its nuclear activities, incluling the insertion of an Oct. 31 deadline.

The draft, summarized by the diplomat for The Associated Press, demands "complete, immediate and unrestricted access" to all sites and information requested by the agency in the two years since Iran's clandestine nuclear activities were revealed.

It also demands a complete list of nuclear materials and know-how imported by Iran, along with the black market suppliers and "immediate suspension" of all uranium reprocessing and activities related to uranium enrichment both of which can be used to make nuclear bombs.

AFP adds: The United States appeared headed for a showdown with Iran over the Islamic republic's alleged nuclear weapons programme, with both sides taking hardline positions yesterday at the UN atomic agency.

The United States is pushing for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to adopt a resolution at a meeting in Vienna this week that would set a deadline, possibly as early as October 31, for Tehran to fully suspend uranium enrichment and take other measures, diplomats said.