Dubai - Five Dubai-based companies are among 16 firms and individuals accused by the United States of exporting items to Iran that could be used to make weapons and explosives, a news report said Saturday.

The traders are alleged to have purchased US-made "dual use" goods and transported them to Iran via the United Arab Emirates, Britain, Malaysia, Germany and Singapore, the Abu Dhabi-based The National newspaper said.

While Iran is subject to UN sanctions related primarily to material used in the manufacture of weapons of mass destruction, it is also covered by unilateral US sanctions, which prohibit the sale of most goods of US origin to the Islamic republic.

Brussels  - The European Union on Friday threw its diplomatic weight behind the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), saying that it was gravely concerned by Iran's refusal to cooperate with IAEA inspectors of its nuclear programme.

The EU "deplores" the fact that Iran has refused to suspend nuclear activities and shares the "grave concern" of IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei that Iran "is not answering questions relating to possible activities linked to the design and building of nuclear weapons," a statement on behalf of the 27-member bloc said.

Vienna- There is little members of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) can do at their meeting on September 22 to get Iran to halt its nuclear programme and show more transparency.

Diplomats said it was up to the United Nations Security Council in New York, rather than the IAEA Board of Governors in Vienna, to take further steps.

Top diplomats of permanent Security Council members China, Britain, France, Russia and the United States, as well as Germany, are set to gather in Washington on Friday to discuss further steps regarding Iran.

Tehran - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday that Iran had nothing against Israeli Jews but called on them to return to their "countries of origin."

"Although we distinguish between the people (Jews living in Israel) and the Zionist (Israeli) regime, but we neither acknowledge an Israeli government nor a nation," Ahmadinejad said in a press conference in Tehran.

Tehran  - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday criticized European Union policies in the Caucasus crisis.

"The Europeans should have studied more carefully and made a better assessment of the regional situation and eventually not allowed the crisis to happen at all," Ahmadinejad said at a press conference in Tehran, referring to Europe's support for Georgia's NATO membership.

Referring to Afghanistan, Ahmadinejad said that whenever NATO was involved, "The situation got worse and tensions increased."

Tehran - Iran is not afraid of new financial sanctions and would go on with its nuclear programmes, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday.

"Sanctions are not important at all, and we ignore them as they [the world powers] have made such threats in the last three years and nothing happened," Ahmadinejad said at a new conference in Tehran.

The president was referring to US and European threats to impose further sanctions on Iran after the UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency