VIENNA, Feb 5: The US ambassador to the UN's nuclear watchdog agency praised Libya on Thursday for owning up to running atomic weapons programmes and urged Iran to do the same by fully cooperating with the agency's inspectors.

Libya admitted in December it had been seeking nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and invited US, British and UN experts to help it destroy its weapons of mass destruction (WMD) facilities.

Since then, Tripoli has provided the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) with a wealth of detail about its nuclear weapons programme, including designs for nuclear warheads, which are now in the United States under an IAEA seal.

"It's very clear that in the case of Libya you're dealing with a country that has made a decision (to disarm) and is acting on that decision, and that has not been said about Iran," U.. Ambassador Kenneth Brill told reporters after a briefing by IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei on Libya.

He added that he looked forward to the day Tehran would begin demonstrating "the same voluntary providing of information" as Tripoli.

Western diplomats on the IAEA board have said that Iran does not volunteer information and is often slow in answering the questions the IAEA inspectors ask it.

Later this month the IAEA will give its 35 governing board member states the latest report on inspections of Iran's nuclear programme.

Tehran insists its nuclear ambitions are limited to the peaceful generation of electricity. Washington alleges its nuclear activities are a front for the development of weapons.

Western diplomats said there were parallels between Libya and Iran's nuclear programmes.

Several alleged they believed Libya obtained Chinese designs for nuclear warheads from Pakistan.

One diplomat said any discovery that such weapons designs had been given to Iran would be the "silver bullet" that would completely undermine Iran's portrayal of its nuclear programme as peaceful. -Reuters