26 February 2004	Thursday	05 Muharram 1425

VIENNA, Feb 25: The US envoy to the United Nations in Vienna said on Wednesday the UN nuclear watchdog's latest report on Iran strengthens Washington's view that Tehran has a secret nuclear weapons programme.

"Iran needs to demonstrate verifiably to the (IAEA) and the international community that it has abandoned its efforts to develop a nuclear weapons capability," ambassador Kenneth Brill told reporters.

On Tuesday the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) published an interim report on its inspections of Iran's nuclear programme, which Tehran says is intended only for the peaceful generation of electricity.

The report said Tehran had continued to hide from the IAEA technology and research that could be linked to a weapons programme, despite its declaration in October that it had no more secrets to divulge.

"The continuing pattern of Iranian deception and delayed admissions about its nuclear activities, as well as specific information in the IAEA report, strengthens our assessment that Iran's nuclear programme...is clearly geared towards the development of nuclear weapons," Brill said.

In Tehran an Iranian official said on Wednesday it had told the United Nations enough about its nuclear programme and had no obligation to say more, rebuffing calls for it to be more open and dispel suspicions it is building a nuclear bomb.

"Iran has given enough answers to the agency's questions," Hassan Rohani, head of Supreme National Security Council and Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, was quoted as saying by the official news agency, IRNA.

"We have other research projects which we haven't announced to the agency and we don't think it is necessary to announce to the agency," Hassan Rohani said.

Iran's foreign ministry spokesman, Hamid Reza Asefi, said in a statement that outstanding IAEA concerns about Tehran's nuclear programme were "purely procedural" and did not undermine Iran's denials that is pursuing atomic arms.

IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said on Tuesday Tehran's failure to disclose sensitive research in its October declaration was a "setback" and said he wanted to see "much more prompt" information coming from Tehran.

"I hope this will be the last time any aspect of the programme has not been declared to us," Mr ElBaradei said during a flight from the Libyan capital Tripoli to Rome. However, he praised Iran's overall cooperation and its decision to suspend all activities related to the enrichment of uranium.

The IAEA said Iran had failed to declare designs and parts for advanced "P2" centrifuges, which can produce material for nuclear weapons, as well as experiments with polonium-210, a substance that can help trigger a chain reaction in a bomb.

Mr Rohani took issue with Mr ElBaradei's view of the P2 issue, saying Iran was not obliged to report the centrifuge research. On the subject of polonium, Mr Asefi said the issue had been misunderstood and misrepresented by the media. -Reuters