TEHRAN, April 10: United Nations inspectors on Monday visited ran’s nuclear facilities ahead of a trip to the country by International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei, a senior official said.

The deputy head of Iran’s atomic organisation, Mohammad Saidi, said the IAEA team was on a trip to a uranium conversion site at Isfahan and would later visit an enrichment facility at Natanz.

The five IAEA inspectors arrived in Iran on Friday.

Mr ElBaradei’s visit, due to begin on Wednesday, is his first to the country this year and comes amid growing international pressure on Tehran to suspend its uranium enrichment activities.

It is not yet clear who Mr ElBaradei will meet in Tehran, and Iranian sources here said even the precise timing and content of the visit had yet to be finalised.

On March 29 the United Nations Security Council has called on Iran to suspend uranium enrichment to provide a watertight guarantee that its nuclear programme is peaceful, and asked ElBaradei to report on Iranian compliance after 30 days. Iran categorically rejects charges that it is seeking atomic weapons and has so far rejected the ultimatum.

Tensions over Iran have been mounting, with explosive new reports in the United States saying that President George W. Bush is mulling military options to knock out the Islamic republic’s nuclear program. —AFP