Iran granted the UN nuclear watchdog access to a high-security military site and presented new documents on its nuclear program as part of the effort to avoid referral to the UN Security Council, the Austria press agency quoted Austrian diplomats as saying on Wednesday.

The Parchin military complex, 30 km southeast of Tehran with high- security devices, has been suspected by the Unite States as being linked to Iran's secret nuclear experiments.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had been trying in the past year to conduct checks within the sprawling complex for traces of radioactivity.

Iran has also given IAEA inspectors new sensitive documents and granted interviews with several senior officials thought linked to black market purchases of uranium enrichment technology, said the diplomats.

Tehran is showing more cooperation by such gestures in order to avoid a referral to the UN Security Council threatened by the European Union (EU), as the Security Council could impose trade sanctions, diplomats in the Austrian capital said.

However, in spite of the pressure form the United States and Europe, Tehran has also told the IAEA that it will resume converting uranium into a gas that can be enriched either to generate energy or produce nuclear weapons next week, a diplomat close to the agency said.

France renewed its threat on Wednesday to raise the issue of Iran's nuclear program before the UN Security Council if the Islamic republic did not suspend uranium conversion in its Isfahan nuclear center.

Foreign Minister Philip Douste-Blazy told the parliament that if Iran did not suspend its disputed nuclear activities, "then there will be firmness and there will be a return to (IAEA Director Mohamed) ElBaradei's report to the United Nations Security Council."

The 35-nation IAEA board at its September meeting told Iran to suspend all activities related to uranium enrichment, including conversion, and to give agency experts access to research, experts, locations and documents or be referred to the Security Council.

Iran has not gone beyond conversion, but insists that it has the right to advance to the next stage -- enrichment.

ElBaradei said on Tuesday that the agency was making progress in the nuclear probe in Iran, while stressing that utmost efforts should be made to ensure that the Iran nuclear issue be solved through peaceful and diplomatic means.

He also urged Iran to prove that its nuclear program is for peaceful purpose.

(Xinhua News Agency November 3, 2005)