VIENNA, March 30: UN atomic agency chief Mohammed ElBaradei is to hold talks in Iran next Tuesday to urge the government to cooperate fully with international monitoring of its nuclear programme.

It will be the third visit to Iran by Mr ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, since the IAEA began investigating in February last year whether Ttehran was secretly developing atomic weapons, as Washington alleges.

The purpose of the visit is "to consult on outstanding issues relevant to the IAEA's verification of Iran's safeguards agreement" under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, agency spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said in a statement in Vienna. -AFP