24-02-10 IAEA concerned about Iran developing nuclear weapons

Iran accused the new head of the U.N. nuclear agency on Wednesday of issuing a misleading and unbalanced report on Iran's atomic activities,saying he omitted important information.The International Atomic Energy Agency report,the first issued since Yukiya Amano became director-general,voiced concern Iran may be actively trying to design a nuclear-armed missile now,and not just in the past.The report,which brought expressions of alarm from Western powers and Russia,used unusually forthright language and took a harder-hitting line on Iran than those of Amano's predecessor,Mohamed ElBaradei,who left office three months ago.Amano urged Iran to cooperate with the agency without delay to verify that its uranium enrichment program was solely for peaceful uses,as Tehran maintains."The report is not balanced and factual,since it has not duly reflected the explanations of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the questions (of) the agency," Iran's IAEA ambassador,Ali Asghar Soltanieh,told diplomats and IAEA officials in a closed-door briefing on the report.Last week Iran announced a start to higher-level enrichment after failing in a bid to renegotiate an IAEA-backed plan for big powers to provide it with fuel rods for nuclear medicine made from uranium refined up to 20 percent purity.Analysts say Iran lacks the technology to convert such uranium to power a medical isotope reactor,and has earmarked for higher enrichment a portion of its uranium stock far greater than what would be needed to keep the plant running.