Concern about Iranian nuclear bomb to dominate IAEA meet

Vienna  - Unresolved questions about a possible Iranian nuclear weapons programme in the past and Tehran's ongoing defiance of UN Security Council demands will be at the centre of talks when the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) starts its regular June meeting in Vienna on Monday.

Diplomats on the 35-nation board will discuss the latest IAEA report, which said that Iranian studies with possible military nuclear dimensions remained a "matter of serious concern" and should be explained by Iran "without delay."

In its meeting, which is expected to last three to five days, the board is unlikely to issue a resolution against Iran.

A resolution would not have won the support of the whole board and would have sent Tehran a message of discord, Western diplomats said.

Despite three rounds of sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council, Iran continues to expand its uranium enrichment programme.

Western countries fear that Iran could restart its suspected nuclear weapons programme and use its enrichment plant to produce uranium for atomic weapons.

Tehran denies that it planned to build a bomb and says that the IAEA's information in that regard is fabricated.

The IAEA board meets as EU chief diplomat Javier Solana is trying to hand over an incentives package developed by France, Germany, Britain, the US, Russia and China that is supposed to entice Tehran to halt its nuclear programme. (dpa)

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