June 15, 2007	Friday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 29, 1428

VIENNA, June 14: UN nuclear chief Mohamed ElBaradei called on Thursday on Iran to declare a moratorium on expanding uranium enrichment in order to defuse the crisis over fears Tehran seeks atomic weapons.

“It would be good if Iran today would stop building additional centrifuges and installing (them) in (the underground plant in) Natanz,” ElBaradei told reporters after a four-day meeting in Vienna of the watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

He said this “could be a first step toward a time-out, or freeze for freeze,” referring to Iran eventually halting enrichment in return for the UN Security Council holding off on further sanctions.

The Council has imposed two rounds of sanctions to get Iran to suspend all work on uranium enrichment, which makes nuclear reactor fuel but also atom bomb material.

The time-out would set the stage for negotiations between Iran and world powers on giving Tehran trade, security and political benefits in exchange for it guaranteeing it will not develop nuclear weapons.

But preliminary talks between the European Union and Iran have foundered on Iran's refusal to consider either a moratorium or a suspension of enrichment, and the crisis has escalated.

ElBaradei reported to the IAEA's 35-nation board of governors that Iran has not responded to the Security Council's calls, a finding which sets the stage for a third round of sanctions.

ElBaradei said he was “quite concerned about the increasing confrontation,” between the United States, which charges that Iran seeks nuclear weapons, and Iran, which says its atomic programme is a peaceful effort to generate electricity.

He said there was time for diplomacy as there is a consensus that Iran is “three to eight years away” from being able to make an atomic bomb, if that is what it wants to do. The use of force against Iran “would be catastrophic, would be an act of madness frankly,” ElBaradei said.

“Let's talk about how to find a solution through diplomacy and through dialogue,” he said.

A diplomat close to the IAEA said that ElBaradei was for the first time publicly calling on Iran to unilaterally move towards a moratorium.

The diplomat said ElBaradei was doing this to show he does not favour Iran, after US complaints that the IAEA director general was muddying the international call for Iran to fully suspend enrichment.

ElBaradei had said in newspaper interviews that since Iran has already obtained the knowledge of how to enrich, it should be allowed to keep some enrichment capability in any deal.

ElBaradei said on Thursday the Iranians have “been steadily moving towards perfecting their technology” but he said he could not report on whether their centrifuges were running “with the speed desired.” “That is a part which we have not yet seen and we still have to do some analysis,” ElBaradei said.

He said Iran has from 1,700-2,000 centrifuges enriching uranium now at its underground plant in Natanz, and “our assessment is that by the end of July they might have 18 cascades (some 3,000 centrifuges) running. That is obviously a large number.” Experts say such a set-up could produce enough enriched uranium for a bomb in less than a year.—AFP