UNITED NATIONS, Dec 1: The head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog has expressed hope that the contentious issue of Iran’s nuclear programme could be resolved by assuring international community that ‘it is not meant for developing nuclear weapons’ and by assuring Iranians they can use the technology for peaceful purposes.

In an interview with New Delhi Television, a transcript of which was Released on Thursday, the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Dr Mohammed ElBaradei stressed that the Iranians ‘need to be fully transparent. But I hope there will be a solution to the nuclear issue’.

In the interview, which will be broadcast on Friday, Mr ElBaradei said The United States would have to be involved in the dialogue process ‘because some of the security issues we are talking about can only be resolved through the US and not through Europe’.