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The UN's nuclear watchdog agency meets for a second day today on Iran's atomic programme after its chief called for Iran to allow tougher inspections amid US claims Tehran is secretly developing weapons.

Yesterday International Atomic Energy Agency director general Mohammed ElBaradei urged Iran to sign an additional protocol to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to allow the IAEA to inspect all suspect sites, not just those declared by Tehran.

But Tehran held fast to its refusal to sign a new protocol.

Iran's representative to the IAEA, Ali Salehi, told reporters after yesterday's meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors: "Iran has done all its best, has even gone further than the agreements that it has had so far under the (NPT) safeguards agreement".

"We have been forthcoming. We have received six inspection teams in Iran, and they have been to places that were beyond the agreement we have with the agency".

He said Iran would "look at the additional protocol positively" if the IAEA "should send the right signal" and not "use the language of force".

"I think if mutual confidence is attained... then I think there will be mutual confidence in all fields," he said.

But things did not seem to moving in this direction as the US yesterday urged the IAEA not to hesitate in speaking out against Iran's nuclear programme.

Washington claims Iran is using its programme as a pretext to acquire nuclear weapons.

"We think it's appropriate not just for individual governments to express their concerns, but for the Board of Governors to express their concerns about the nuclear programme," State Department spokesperson Richard Boucher told the IAEA.

Washington urged the IAEA "to call on Iran to fix the problems with that programme, to answer all the outstanding questions about that programme, and indeed to sign and implement without any delay the additional protocols, which is the more comprehensive International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards".

Boucher did not say how the IAEA's board should express its concerns, nor did he mention transferring the dossier to the UN Security Council.

Boucher said Washington also wanted Tehran to sign the additional protocol to the NPT.

Tehran has asked that industrialised countries that have signed the NPT transfer nuclear technology to it as part of reciprocal assistance required under the treaty.

"Virtually every country in the world has accepted these additional protocols," Boucher added.

"There are very, very few exceptions, one of which is Iran. And it's not a bargaining point".

EU foreign ministers issued a similar call, saying Iran should "urgently and unconditionally" sign the protocol because of "serious concern" over its nuclear activities.

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, whose country is helping Iran build its first nuclear power plant at Bushehr, also said yesterday he hoped Tehran would allow the IAEA broader scope for inspecting its nuclear facilities.

ElBaradei said Tehran had failed to report some nuclear activities, as he presented a report to the IAEA Board of Governors on Iran's atomic program, according to a copy of his speech made available to reporters.

US national security advisor Condoleeza Rice has said the IAEA report indicates that Iran has "been doing exactly what the US has thought," using its know-how to do "things that could lead to a nuclear weapons programme and that is unacceptable".

The IAEA report says Iran has fallen short of its nuclear treaty obligations but is taking steps to comply.

It cites among Iran's failures to comply the unreported importation of uranium in 1991 and its transfer for processing.

It said Iran had since submitted reports on imports but still had to give information "on the transfer of the material for further processing and use".

The report said the quantities of nuclear material had not been large and would require reprocessing to be used in a nuclear weapon, but that the "number of failures by Iran to report the material, facilities and activities in question in a timely manner as it is obliged... is a matter of concern".

The report comes after some five months of IAEA inspections in Iran and follows a visit there by ElBaradei in February. – Sapa-AFP.

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