Iran has resumed atomic work - UN

The UN nuclear watchdog said yesterday questions remained about Iran's atomic programme and confirmed Tehran had resumed activities suspended under a deal with the European Union.

It sets the stage for Iran's possible referral to the UN Security Council for sanctions.

The confidential report of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), obtained by Reuters, said the agency was "still not in a position to conclude that there are no undeclared nuclear materials or activities in Iran".

The report, penned by IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei, said: "In view of the fact that the agency is not yet in a position to clarify some of the important outstanding issues after two-and-a-half years of intensive inspections and investigation, Iran's full transparency is indispensable and overdue."

Iran, which denies wanting nuclear weapons as suspected by Washington and the European Union, says it has answered almost all of the IAEA's questions and shown its atomic ambitions are limited to harnessing nuclear power to generate electricity.

But it angered the EU by resuming uranium processing work last month at a plant in Isfahan - a move which brought talks between Iran and the EU close to collapse and led EU officials to threaten the Security Council referral.

The report said that since resuming work at Isfahan, Iran had produced 6.8 tonnes of uranium hexafluoride gas, the form of uranium fed into centrifuges to enrich uranium, enough for a nuclear bomb if purified into a highly enriched form.