15 May 2004	Saturday	24 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425

VIENNA, May 14: UN atomic energy inspectors see a pattern in Iran of radiation contamination that could indicate attempts to enrich uranium to bomb-grade levels, diplomats close to the agency said as it waits for a report from Iran on its nuclear programme.

The report is due in mid-May, possibly next week, and comes as International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors are completing months of investigations into US allegations that Iran is secretly developing ng nuclear weapons.

The IAEA is to hold a meeting in Vienna on June 14 of its 35-nation board of governors.

Reflecting the current thinking of investigators, one diplomat said that if the Iranians "weren't working on something that hasn't been declared, the contamination should be evenly spread throughout Iran's nuclear installations."

Radioactive dust spreads in a uniform pattern but particles of highly enriched uranium have been found in specific sites, hinting that "someone brought material or equipment and then removed it."

IAEA inspectors have reported two such concentrations - at a Kalaye Electric Company workshop in Tehran and at the Natanz pilot fuel enrichment plant 250 kilometressouth of the Iranian capital.

The diplomat refused to confirm if other sites had been found but said that the Kalaye company had many sites in Tehran and throughout Iran.

Another diplomat confirmed that contamination had been found at other sites but downplayed the importance of this.

"There has been a lot of movement of equipment which was contaminated so if it was moved to other sites, you would expect to find contamination," the official said.

"They've moved equipment and whizzed what we expect to find. Unfortunately we don't learn much about it," he said.

Highly enriched uranium (HEU) can be the raw material for a nuclear bomb, with weapons-grade uranium enriched to over 80 percent of the U-235 isotope, usually by cascades of centrifuges.

IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said in April that no traces of HEU have been found beyond the two sites at Kalaye and Natanz.

The traces found at "one room in the Kalaye Electric Company workshop" were particles of "uranium enriched to 36 percent," according to an IAEA report on Iran filed in February.

Iran has been asked to explain this "particularly in light of its declaration that it has not enriched uranium to more than 1.2 percent U-235 using centrifuge technology," the report said.

Nuclear expert David Albright said in Washington that one would only try to take 36-percent enriched uranium and enrich it further in the framework of a weapons programme.-AFP