TEHRAN, July 12: International Atomic Energy Agency deputy head Olli Heinonen said talks with Iran on Thursday over its nuclear drive were “constructive” and that some “important steps” were made.

“We had constructive discussions and made some important steps and we will continue discussions in coming weeks,” Heinonen told reporters at the end of three rounds of talks with Iranian nuclear officials.

“The atmosphere was very good,” he added, after a meeting between the IAEA delegation, including legal, political and technical officials, and Iranian deputy national security chief Javad Vaeidi.

“We immediately agreed on four or five steps. We’ll continue on present issues in the next weeks and we look forward to progress,” Heinonen said.

“Iran did some things in the past where we were not present and we have to reconstruct this history,” he added.

“If the cooperation continues like this we hope that the problems will be solved, not now but in a reasonable future.” Vaeidi for his part labelled Thursday's meeting as “serious and good.” “We discussed methods to regulate the outstanding problems with the agency, and made good progress,” he told a joint press conference with Heinonen.“We divided the matters into two parts, the current and the past problems.

We reached agreement on certain points, we agreed on some modalities for our cooperation and our work with the IAEA,” he added.

He also hoped to be able to “solve the remaining questions in a timeframe which is convenient to both parties.” IAEA's chief Mohamed ElBaradei has said that “drawing up a plan of action” should take 60 days. Implementation would then begin on resolving questions about Iranian nuclear activities that could have military applications.

Iran was slapped with two sets of UN sanctions over its failure to freeze uranium enrichment, but President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad remained defiant, saying on Wednesday that Tehran would never give up its “right” to nuclear technology.

“The trend of installing centrifuges could be slowed down or gain momentum, this is a executive issue, but no-one should expect that we will give up our rights, and we will not halt the trend,” Ahmadinejad said.

The deputy head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organisation, Mohammad Saeedi, said another round of talks between Iranian and IAEA officials was in the offing.

“No date but very near future,” he told reporters.

He also said that the IAEA delegation had met on Wednesday with the national security chief and Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani, but he did not elaborate on the talks.

On Monday, ElBaradei had said that Iran has slowed the expansion of its uranium enrichment work.

“We have seen a fairly slow development in commissioning new cascades,” he said, referring to the installation of centrifuges which enrich uranium into fuel for civilian reactors or, in a highly refined state, nuclear bomb material.

Tehran's refusal to address IAEA questions and its resumption of enrichment activities, which it had suspended for more than two years, prompted the world body to refer Iran to the UN Security Council in February 2006.

Since then the Security Council has adopted three resolutions demanding that Iran suspend enrichment, and has imposed two sets of sanctions.

On Monday, a US think-tank reported that commercial satellite imagery indicated Iran is tunnelling into a mountain near the Natanz complex, possibly to protect the facility production against air attack.

Britain has said it will press for further UN resolution to tighten sanctions on Iran if it continues to defy calls to suspend enrichment, while US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has refused to rule out military action.—AFP