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Iran Cooperative but Nuclear Issue Remains Unsolved
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Iran's acceptance of a compromise on the agenda text of a global nuclear conference in Vienna reflects its cooperative attitude towards the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) but may not be enough to solve the country's nuclear issue, Chinese experts said Wednesday.

Teheran has expressed its willingness to cooperate with the world nuclear watchdog but that does not mean it would give up its uranium enrichment program, former Chinese ambassador to Iran Hua Liming said.

The 130-nation global conference to strengthen the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) had been stalled after it began on April 30 because of Iran's objection to a phrase in the agenda: "need for full compliance with" the NPT.

Reports said Iran felt that the wording could make it a target for defying UN Security Council demands and force it to suspend its uranium enrichment program, which can be used to generate power as well as to create fissile warhead material.

"Iran's compromise is aimed at protecting its rights of peaceful use of nuclear energy and avoiding the sanctions from the UN," Shanghai-based Fudan University's senior professor Shen Dingli said.

On Tuesday, Iran accepted the compromise, which allowed the delegations to move on to their main agenda laying the groundwork for a 2010 conference to review and possibly revise the pact to make it more effective in curbing the spread of nuclear arms.

The South African proposal accepted on Tuesday would footnote the phrase "need for full compliance with" to ensure that all aspects of the NPT is fully observed an allusion to the need for the US and other nuclear weapons countries to disarm.

According to Iran Daily, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad-Ali Hosseini said his country does not want to withdraw from the NPT and supports negotiations within the IAEA and NPT framework of regulations.

Senior officials of the UN Security Council's permanent members, including China and the US, will meet today in Berlin to discuss ways to deal with Iran's nuclear issue. Germany too will be represented at the meeting.

Hua said the success of the meeting will depend largely on the attitude of the US, which always takes a hard line against Iran. The European Union is ready to accept a "civil nuclear" Iran under IAEA's close supervision, though.

Hua said a lot of European countries, especially Germany that is Iran's largest trading partner, would not be happy to see economic sanctions against Teheran and are working actively to solve the issue in a proper way.

Reports said that Iran's compromise decision appeared driven by the frustration over the deadlock expressed by nations that often support Iran in its nuclear dispute.

The NPT requires signatory nations not to pursue nuclear weapons, but India and Pakistan, known as nuclear weapons states, remain outside the treaty.

(China Daily May 10, 2007)

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