UN atomic agency may meet in January

VIENNA (AFP) - The UN nuclear watchdog agency's 35-nation board of governors may meet in January to discuss the United Nations' levying of sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, diplomats have told AFP.

The UN Security Council resolution on Saturday imposing the sanctions also asked the International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei to report within 60 days on whether Iran has suspended uranium enrichment and cooperated fully with an ongoing IAEA investigation.

"It is not completely clear that there will be a board meeting in January. But I believe that if there was, it would be procedural and short. The board as the governing body may need to instruct the (IAEA) secretariat to implement the resolution," a senior European diplomat said Wednesday.

But the diplomat added that an emergency board meeting, probably in mid-January, could be extended or another called at any moment if the "Iranians do anything silly."

The Vienna-based IAEA verifies compliance with the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and referred Iran to the Security Council in March for NPT violations, setting the stage for the sanctions resolution.

The Iranian parliament adopted Wednesday a bill to oblige the government to "revise its cooperation" with the IAEA, in retaliation for the sanctions that limit the sale to Iran of nuclear or missile goods and technology.

At stake is the ability of the IAEA to determine whether Iran's nuclear program is a peaceful effort to generate electricity, as Tehran claims, or, as Washington says, a cover for the secret development of nuclear weapons.

Enriched uranium is used to make nuclear reactor fuel but also atom bomb material.

The IAEA is still unable to make a determination, almost four years into an investigation that began in February 2003 after an Iranian opposition group revealed that Tehran was hiding sensitive atomic work.

Any one of the IAEA's governing states, which range from the United States to Cuba, can call a board meeting.

IAEA officials at the agency's headquarters in Vienna refused to comment.

One diplomat close to the IAEA said ElBaradei "was inclined to go for a board of governors' meeting in mid-January."

But the diplomat said that not all board members want a meeting next month, saying this procedural move is not necessary as ElBardei can go ahead with his report on Iran without such authorization.

These member states want to wait until a regularly scheduled board session in March, which would hear ElBaradei's report.

They "want to wait until the March board in order to give time for sober thought," the diplomat said.