Iran open to more nuclear monitoring

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran would agree to additional international monitoring of its nuclear development, but only if it is allowed to acquire more advanced technology, the head of the country's atomic program said Tuesday.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, which visited Iran's nuclear facilities earlier this year, wants Tehran to allow inspectors unfettered access to its facilities without notice.

Washington accuses Tehran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons and is pressing the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency to declare Iran in violation of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Iranian officials insist the nuclear program is entirely peaceful, aimed only at producing electricity.

Iranian nuclear chief Gholamreza Aghazadeh said his country was willing to sign onto the additional inspections under the NPT, if it gets access to advanced technology that has so far been withheld.

"We want the (IAEA) to end discrimination against us and allow all member states equal access to nuclear technology," Aghazadeh said Tuesday.

The nonproliferation treaty, along with imposing safeguards like inspections aimed at preventing weapons development, calls for all members to have equal access to technology to build a peaceful nuclear program.

The United States has pressured Russia -- which is helping build Iran's first reactor -- and other nations to halt exports of advanced atomic technology to Iran. Last week's summit of the United States and seven other industrialized nations ended with a call for a comprehensive U.N. inspection of Iran's nuclear facilities and a warning that the world would not tolerate an Iranian atomic bomb.

IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei is due to release his report on Iran's nuclear program on Monday.

Iran admitted on Sunday it had failed to inform U.N. authorities that it imported a quantity of uranium compounds 12 years ago but said that failure did not violate the non-proliferation treaty.

Aghazadeh said Iran in 1991 imported 2,205 pounds of uranium hexafluoride from China. The compound is used in the process of enriching uranium to a level where it can be used as fuel for nuclear reactors or weapons.

The uranium hexafluoride "remains intact" and is under IAEA safeguard, Aghazadeh said.

"U.S. accusations are trumped-up charges," he said. "The United States is magnifying a very insignificant thing."

He insisted that Iran was cooperating with the IAEA beyond its obligation.

"In the past three months, six teams from IAEA have inspected Iran's nuclear facilities. This shows our transparency," he said. "There is no nuclear facility in Iran that has not been declared to the IAEA," he said.