Sat 21 November 2009 | 07:29 GMT Text size:

Mohamed ElBaradei

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed ElBaradei said on Friday that he believes Iran has not totally rejected his agency's nuclear fuel plan, but time is running out.

The UN nuclear watchdog chief urged Iran on Friday to accept an offer to process its enriched uranium abroad by the end of 2009, and advised Western powers not to impose further sanctions on Tehran.

Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said a plan brokered by the IAEA in which Iran would send low-enriched uranium to Russia and France for conversion into fuel for a Tehran medical reactor was a rare chance to defuse mistrust over its nuclear programme.

"I would hope definitely that we'll get an agreement before the end of the year," he told a news conference in Berlin. "I believe frankly the ball is very much in the Iranian court. I hope they will not miss this unique but fleeting opportunity."

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said that Iran would only accept the fuel deal if the swap of low-enriched uranium for nuclear fuel would be effected simultaneously.

However ElBaradei claimed "I do not consider that I have received a final answer, what I got is an oral response, basically saying we need to keep all the material in Iran until we get the fuel."

The IAEA chief said he was opposed to the imposition of more punitive sanctions if Tehran did finally reject the proposal.
"Are sanctions going to resolve the issue? I don't think so. In my view sanctions are going to make things much worse," he said.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has slammed Western threats over the Iranian nuclear programme.

Under the IAEA plan, Iran would ship out some 75 percent of its low-enriched uranium for conversion into fuel plates for the Tehran medical reactor. World powers want to reduce Iran's stockpile of low-enriched uranium below the amount needed, if refined to high purity, for a single atom bomb.

ILNA   Reuters