Iran Sunday said disputes over its nuclear program could be settled in the coming weeks if the UN Security Council dropped preparations to debate another round of sanctions against the Islamic Republic and turn over its case to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The announcement by Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini comes after an official in Spain said Iran had pledged to end years of stonewalling and provide answers about past suspicious nuclear activities to the IAEA, the UN nuclear monitoring agency.

"Regarding some past ambiguities, which the agency has mentioned, if reviewing of Iran's nuclear issue returns to the agency we will reach a compromise within several weeks," Hosseini told reporters at his weekly news conference in Teheran.

Also on Sunday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Sunday said the world would witness the destruction of Israel soon, the official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported.

Ahmadinejad said last summer's war between Israel and Hezbollah showed for the first time that the "hegemony of the occupier regime (Israel) had collapsed, and the Lebanese nation pushed the button to begin counting the days until the destruction of the Zionist regime," IRNA quoted him as saying.

"God willing, in the near future we will witness the destruction of the corrupt occupier regime," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying during a speech to foreign guests who attended ceremonies marking the 18th anniversary of the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who is known as the father of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Embattled Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has lost public support after Israel failed to achieve its goals during last summer's 34-day war with Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon - freeing two captured soldiers and crushing the militant group.

(China Daily via agencies June 4, 2007)