Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DATE=10/17/03

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=IRAN/NUCLEAR (L-ONLY)

NUMBER=2-308736

BYLINE=MELANIE SULLY

DATELINE=VIENNA

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: The International Atomic Energy Agency says it is sending a team of experts to Iran this weekend to work on what is expected to be the final details for a legal agreement on tougher nuclear inspections. Melanie Sully reports from I-A-E-A headquarters in Vienna.

TEXT: The head of the I-A-E-A, Mohamed ElBaradei, says Tehran has expressed a readiness to sign an additional protocol to allow more intrusive inspections, but some details need to be worked out.

Legal experts from the agency will go through these points during the weekend in the Iranian capital. The I-A-E-A, the United Nations nuclear watchdog, says Iran cannot have any special concessions.

The agency says the protocol includes guarantees on confidentiality, and it does not mean that inspectors have a blank check to go where they want.

The I-A-E-A says that signing the protocol would be seen as a confidence-building measure by Iran, which has been accused by the United States of working on a secret nuclear weapons program.

At the Islamic conference meeting in Indonesia on Friday, Iranian President Mohammad Khatami insisted that his country would not build nuclear weapons. He also pledged that Tehran would continue cooperating with the I-A-E-A as the October 31st deadline the agency has given Iran to answer questions on its nuclear program approaches.

But Firouz Mahvi, a spokesman for an Iranian exile opposition group, says Tehran would sign the protocol only in hopes of reducing international pressure on the country.

/// MAHVI ACT ///

At present the regime is engaged in a delay tactic in response to I-A-E-A's October 31st deadline. Khatami, the Iranian regime's president, said even if the government were to accept to sign the additional protocol, the Majilis, the so-called parliament of the regime and the guardian council, must also approve this decision

/// END ACT ///

Mr. Mahvi said this could take months or longer.

The I-A-E-A board of governors meets at the end of November to judge whether Iran has done enough to prove that its nuclear program is purely peaceful. (Signed)

NEB/MS/ALW/FC/RH