IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said in Vienna on Sunday that Iran and the IAEA reached consensus to complete the implementation of the workplan agreed between the IAEA Secretariat and Iran in August 2007 in the next four weeks.

 

She said that during Elbaradei's meetings with Iranian senior officials, including supreme leader ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadi-nejad, the two sides discussed the "ways and means to accelerate implementation of safeguards in Iran as well as additional confidence building measures."

 

She pointed out that an agreement was reached on the implementation of all the remaining vague issues specified in the workplan, and according to the agreed schedule, implementation of the workplan should be completed in the next four weeks.

 

The two sides also discussed the importance of the implementation of the Additional Protocol and other confidence building measures called for by the United Nations Security Council, she added, and Iran also provided information on its research and development activities on a new generation of centrifuges.

 

Some diplomats in Vienna pointed out that Iran's new attitude could be help ease the international pressure of new sanction on Iran, while some other diplomats believed that it was inauthentic, and a British diplomat even insist on putting more pressure on Iran.

 

The United States has accused Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear program, which Iran has denied. Iran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.

 

The U.N. Security Council has adopted two resolutions - one in December 2006 and the other in March 2007 - to force Iran to suspend uranium enrichment activities and to give up its nuclear programs.

 

(Xinhua News Agency January 14, 2008)