VIENNA, Nov 18: France, Britain and Germany are drafting a resolution on Iran for a key meeting of the U.N. nuclear watchdog next week and Washington is pushing the trio to include some tough language, diplomats said on Thursday.

Iran promised the European Union on Sunday to freeze its uranium enrichment programme, sparing it a referral to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions and opening the door to political and economic incentives the EU trio are offering.

"They are preparing a resolution that will deal with the suspension of the enrichment programme and verification of the suspension by the IAEA," a Western diplomat close to the Iran-EU negotiations said.

The draft resolution will be submitted to the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) board when it meets on Nov 25. "It will be ... in line with the report of (IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei)," the diplomat said.

The IAEA said in a new report on its two-year investigation of Iran's nuclear programme that Iran had not diverted any of its declared nuclear material to a weapons programme, but did not rule out the possibility secret atomic activities existed.

Diplomats said Washington would like the Europeans to include a so-called "trigger mechanism" in the resolution that would set the stage for a referral to the Security Council if Iran resumed activities linked to uranium enrichment or was found to be hiding any more sites from the IAEA. But they said the EU three would prefer to avoid any harsh US-backed language that could disrupt the delicate talks aimed at persuading Tehran to permanently abandon enrichment.

Enrichment is a process of purifying uranium for use in nuclear power plants or in weapons. Washington says Tehran is using its nuclear power programme as a front to develop weapons, a charge Tehran vehemently denies.

"Our views are very clear about Iran. Iran needs to follow through on the recent agreement they came to with our European friends," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.

"They need to fully comply with the IAEA and their inspections. They need to suspend their enrichment-related and reprocessing activities."

SUSPECTED NUCLEAR SITE: The freeze of Iran's enrichment programme is due to take effect on Nov 22. Diplomats close to the IAEA said that most of the programme was already frozen and the agency would be able to verify suspension of the remaining parts fairly soon. However, diplomats said the EU was disturbed by new allegations coming from US Secretary of State Colin Powell and a group of Iranian exiles who claim to have information about Iran's nuclear programme in the past.