Iran will suspend making and assembling centrifuges from April 9, Gholamreza Aqazadeh, chairman of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, said in Tehran Tuesday.   

He made the remarks after meeting with visiting Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Iran "is interested as quickly as possible to bring this case to a close," Aqazadeh said, adding that they had asked the IAEA to close its case by June.

ElBaradei arrived in Tehran earlier on Tuesday to meet with Iranian President Seyyed Mohammad Khatami and senior officials to press for greater transparency for the country's nuclear programs.

"We agreed that we need to accelerate the process of cooperation," ElBaradei told reporters after the talks.

"Mr. Aghazadeh committed that Iran will do everything possible to accelerate the process of resolving the outstanding issues," he added.

(Xinhua News Agency April 7, 2004)