Iran bows to demands on atomic programme

Iran said on Monday it had temporarily halted its uranium enrichment programme and would allow tougher UN checks of its nuclear sites, fulfilling a promise it made to France, Germany and Britain last month.

Speaking just ahead of the release in Vienna of a new report on UN nuclear inspections in Iran, Hassan Rohani, head of the Supreme National Security Council, said checks by inspectors from the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) would confirm that Iran's nuclear programme was peaceful.

Washington says Iran is covertly seeking nuclear weapons. "I officially announce that today we are giving the IAEA a letter agreeing with the Additional Protocol," he told Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin. "From today we are temporarily suspending our process of uranium enrichment."

"A letter stating our willingness to sign up to the Additional Protocol will be submitted today at the end of the working day by Iran's delegate at the IAEA," Rohani said after a separate meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov.

Russia, in a programme that has angered Washington, is building an $800 million nuclear power station at Bushehr on the Gulf. Rohani later told reporters relations with Moscow were so good that Russia might build a second reactor.

The Additional Protocol to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which Tehran signed in 1970, will give the IAEA the right to conduct many more intrusive short-notice checks of declared and undeclared sites in Iran.

Iranian officials told the foreign ministers of Germany, France and Britain last month that Tehran would not only sign the Additional Protocol, but would temporarily stop enriching uranium as a goodwill gesture aimed at building confidence.

However, to the annoyance of Western diplomats in Vienna, Iran took three weeks to stop enriching uranium, which makes it useable as nuclear fuel or for weapons.

Vienna diplomats also said Iran's announcement was carefully timed to soften the blow of the latest IAEA report on inspections in Iran, which will detail numerous failures by Iran to report on its nuclear activities to the UN agency.

Washington has dubbed Iran part of an "axis of evil", countries seeking illegal weapons, but Rohani said Iran had proved this was not the case in a dossier given to the IAEA.

"They (the IAEA) gave us to understand that they had no further questions that Iran had not already answered," he said at his Kremlin meeting. "Atomic weapons have no role in our defence doctrine."