N. Korea, Iran Pressed On Nukes

[David]

AP


U.N. nuclear chief Mohamed ElBaradei urged Iran on Monday to suspend uranium enrichment and called on North Korea to dismantle its weapons program or at least allow inspectors to ensure it is "exclusively peaceful."

In his annual report to the U.N. General Assembly and in comments to a few reporters, he said Iran and North Korea highlight the need for stepped-up global efforts to ensure that declared nuclear material is not diverted "for non-peaceful purposes" and that "no undeclared nuclear material or activities exist."

ElBaradei said the International Atomic Energy Agency is "making progress" in Iran but said Tehran needs to restore confidence with the international community by suspending its enrichment program after previously providing the IAEA with information "that was at times changing, contradictory, and slow in coming."

Iranian lawmakers shouting "Death to America" unanimously approved the outline of a bill Sunday that would force the government to resume uranium enrichment.

But Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Hossein Mousavian, said a compromise was possible. He held out the prospect of Iran suspending building additional facilities to enrich uranium into nuclear fuel if European countries provide fuel for its planned power plants.

Noting that negotiations between Iran and the Europeans are still under way, ElBaradei said, "I think Iran is ? I hope ? ready to suspend."

"Whether that will be ultimately a total suspension, or something else, I think this very much depends on the kind of framework to be agreed with the Europeans," he told reporters.

Asked whether there could be a partial suspension, ElBaradei said, "I think at this stage we need a suspension" but he indicated that whether it would be indefinite or not would be part of the negotiations.