Iran says report shows it was not making nuclear bombs

Iran's declaration to the UN nuclear watchdog would show it was not trying to make atomic weapons, an Iranian official said yesterday as a key deadline for the Islamic Republic expired.

Iran's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Ali Akbar Salehi, told an Iranian news agency the IAEA had all the information it needed to produce a report showing Iran was pursuing a purely civilian nuclear energy programme.

"Iran's will is to remove all the agency's ambiguities and to take all necessary steps to enable the agency to present a positive report to its governor's board," Salehi told the student news agency ISNA.

Iran gave the IAEA its report on October 23, detailing nuclear activities Washington suspects are a smokescreen for building atomic weapons. An Iranian official told Reuters the declaration was "comprehensive, transparent and faultless".

The IAEA had given Tehran an ultimatum to prove by October 31 that it has no secret arms programme, or be reported to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.

But IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said yesterday it would take at least two more weeks to determine whether Iran's report proved it was not trying to build "The Bomb".

"It is too early, but I hope that we will be able to verify what the Iranians have assured us - that this is a comprehensive and accurate declaration," ElBaradei told Reuters during a visit to UN headquarters.

ElBaradei told reporters he would probably not be able to complete checking Iran's declaration by the time he reports to the IAEA's Board of Governors in the second week of November "but I hope we'll have made substantial progress by that time."

In Moscow, a source in the Russian Atomic Energy Ministry said Iran would announce next week exactly when it would sign up to allowing the IAEA to conduct surprise nuclear inspections.

The announcement of when Iran will sign the Additional Protocol to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) allowing snap inspections, is expected when Iranian National Security Council Chief Hassan Rohani visits Moscow next week.