"We request Tehran to remedy all failures identified by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and cooperate fully with the agency to ensure verification of compliance with Iran's safeguard agreements," the text reads.
It was submitted to the IAEA's board of governors after Britian, France, and Germany asked the UN nuclear watchdog to order Iran to prove by October 31 that it was not secretly trying to develop atomic weapons.
"We have drafted a resolution ... meant as a kind of a middle ground. We do not really see deadlines as a factor," a South African diplomat said.
"It is a working document. We are quite amenable to other countries giving their input into this.
It does not differ that much from the resolution proposed by Britain, Germany and France".
The diplomat added that those states "have incorporated some of our language into their latest version".
The US, which believes Tehran is seeking nuclear weapons, on Tuesday accused the Islamic republic of breaching safeguards agreements under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
The US delegation, along with the Japanese, gave its support to the resolution proposed by Britain, France and Germany and said it marked "a last chance" for Tehran to answer questions about its atomic programme.
That text drew an angry warning from Iran that it could end all cooperation with the IAEA.
The Iranian representative to the IAEA Ali Akbar Salehi said: "We do not accept deadlines . . . You cannot impose deadlines on a sovereign country".
The 35-member IAEA board is divided on how to handle Iran's case as countries from the non-aligned world are reluctant to follow the US and Europe's hard line.
South Africa, which holds the presidency of the Non-Aligned Movement, dismantled its nuclear military capabilities in the dying days of apartheid in the early 1990s. – Sapa-AFP.
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