Iran seeks to change terms of nuke freeze

Under the terms of a deal hammered out with Britain, Germany and France, Tehran was supposed to suspend all uranium enrichment activities from Monday, a move which is now being verified by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

But a diplomat who covers the IAEA said the Iranians "are trying to convince the IAEA to leave several dozen of the centrifuges unsealed for RD (research and development) purposes in addition to other equipment, which has direct use for enrichment." A Western diplomat said it would be "outrageous" if Iran at the last minute exempted some centrifuges, the machines which enrich uranium, from the suspension, which was meant to be total in order to allay US suspicions that the Islamic Republic is secretly developing nuclear weapons.

A European diplomat said: "It is not acceptable to us."

IAEA inspectors were Wednesday racing to seal some 1,000 centrifuges in Iran, spread across workshops in three different locations, in time to verify the suspension for a meeting in Vienna Thursday of the IAEA's 35-nation board.

A diplomat close to the IAEA said the agency was not negotiating with Iran over the suspension since the agreement was with EU negotiators Britain, France and Germany.

"It is up to Iran to define what it wants the IAEA to do or not to do," the diplomat said.

The IAEA "will report on what it has reached" in terms of verification, the diplomat said.

The diplomat refused to say exactly what sort of research Iran wants to carry out with the centrifuges but said it would probably be for testing and not actual enrichment of uranium.

The diplomat had no comment on what other equipment Iran might be trying to exempt.