Iran given seven weeks to answer nuclear questions

A showdown over Iran's suspected nuclear weapons ambitions moved closer yesterday when the United Nations' atomic watchdog agency handed Tehran a seven-week deadline to co-operate. The Iranian delegation staged an angry walkout in response.

Ending a week-long meeting in Geneva, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) demanded that Iran offer "accelerated co-operation" so uncertainties over its nuclear programme could be cleared by the end of October.

The agency also urged Tehran to fulfil its reporting obligations under the statutes of the IAEA, of which Iran is a member, and to suspend all uranium enrichment operations. This includes the shipment of nuclear materials to the Natanz plant south of Tehran, where inspectors this year found traces of weapons-grade enriched uranium. Tehran insists its nuclear programs are for generating electricity and says its equipment was "contaminated" by a previous owner.

Mohamed ElBaradei, the IAEA chief, toured Iran's nuclear facilities in February, including the incomplete plant in Natanz. He was said to be dismayed by the advanced stage of a project using hundreds of centrifuges to enrich uranium.

Mr ElBaradei expressed confidence that Iran would comply with the agency before he reports to the board at its next meeting in November. He said: "[The board] is sending a very powerful message to Iran that they need to co-operate fully and immediately and show complete transparency."

The IAEA's decision raises the real prospect of Security Council action against Iran, including sanctions, if the clerical regime does not comply before the November meeting.

Last night that seemed the most likely outcome, after Ali Akbar Salehi, the chief Iranian representative to the board, used the walkout to launch a fierce denunciation of the US.

Mr Salehi said the pressure was part of Washington's grand design to remake the Middle East. Nothing would satisfy the US's "appetite for vengeance", short of confrontation and war.

He said: "It is no secret that the [Bush administration] entertains the idea of invasion of yet another territory, as they aim to re-engineer and reshape the entire Middle East region."

Mr Salehi said that Iran would review its co-operation with the UN agency in light of the resolution. Kenneth Brill, the chief US delegate to the IAEA, said of the threat: "I think that suggests they have something to hide that they do not want to come to light."

Washington has pressed for UN sanctions since 2002, when George Bush included Iran alongside Iraq and North Korea in an "axis of evil". This time it failed to secure an explicit threat from the IAEA. But Iran's behaviour has convinced many US allies it is secretly developing nuclear weapons.

Israel is watching closely too. In 1981 Israel destroyed the Osirak reactor near Baghdad, the centrepiece of Saddam Hussein's nuclear programme.