TEHRAN, Jan 24: Iran may allow UN inspectors back into a military base where Washington says tests linked to a covert atomic weapons programme could have taken place, a senior Iranian official was quoted as saying on Monday.

After several months of delay, Iran earlier this month let a team from the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) take environmental samples at the Parchin military base.

But IAEA inspectors did not get the full access to the site they wanted and would like to return to take further samples, diplomats in Vienna said. Asked if the inspectors would be allowed back into Parchin, Hossein Mousavian, one of Iran's chief nuclear negotiators, said: "I cannot rule this out." -Reuters