Iran is seeking exemptions from a deal to suspend sensitive nuclear activities that could be used to make weapons, just 3 days after it came into force, the head of the UN atomic watchdog said on Thursday.  

Iran's request threatened to wreck a hard-won agreement with the European Union and to infuriate Washington, which despite Iranian denials has long accused Tehran of trying to build an atomic bomb.

The dispute came to a head as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which has the authority to refer Iran to the United Nations for possible sanctions, began a crucial board meeting to review its nuclear program.

IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said Iran wanted to continue experimenting with 20 centrifuges for enriching uranium, although without using nuclear material.

Western diplomats said that flew in the face of Tehran's Nov. 15 agreement with EU members Germany, France and Britain.

To avoid the risk of sanctions, Iran agreed under the deal to voluntarily suspend all activity related to uranium enrichment, the process by which the metal is purified for use in nuclear reactors or, potentially, in bombs.

"There's a general feeling that people want to give the EU agreement a chance," one diplomat said. But the Iranian move meant the deal had been "unnecessarily placed in jeopardy."

Another senior diplomat said Tehran appeared to have raised the exemption issue as a bargaining tactic in the hope of winning concessions elsewhere.

"This is a big problem," a third diplomat said. He said IAEA inspectors ran into problems on Wednesday when Iran refused to let them seal the 20 centrifuges to put them out of use.

IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky confirmed this, and said that the centrifuges were at the Natanz enrichment plant, a facility that Tehran had kept secret from the United Nations until a group of Iranian exiles revealed its existence in August 2002.

Centrifuges are devices that spin at supersonic speed to produce enriched uranium from uranium hexafluoride gas (UF6).

ElBaradei said that until it suspended enrichment-related activities on Monday, Iran had produced 3.5 tons of UF6.

A diplomat close to the IAEA said this was significantly higher than the 2 tons previously recorded by the agency and could produce about a quarter of the 25 kg of highly enriched uranium needed for a bomb.

ElBaradei said he hoped the centrifuge dispute would "resolve itself" within 24 hours. Meanwhile, away from the conference hall, member states were haggling over an EU-drafted resolution on Iran which Tehran sees as too critical and Washington considers too weak, diplomats said.

Sirus Naseri, a member of the Iranian delegation, told Reuters it was time for the EU to "start delivering" on the terms of this month's deal, which held out the prospect of trade incentives and peaceful nuclear technology for Iran.

France, Britain and Germany circulated a revised draft resolution that included quite a few changes to accommodate Iranian demands. However the Iranian delegation was not satisfied.

"It's a step forward but not meeting our expectations," Naseri said, adding discussions were continuing.

A Western diplomat on the board said he believed Washington did not like the new text but would probably not block anything proposed by the Europeans.

Washington wanted the text to include a "trigger" that would automatically refer Iran to the Security Council if it resumed any enrichment-related work.

But the latest EU draft, parts of which were read to Reuters, included a clause that Iran felt was an indirect trigger was removed, while the call for Iran to provide "unrestricted access" to the IAEA was changed to "access deemed necessary by the agency."

(Chinadaily.com.cn via agencies, November 26, 2004)