Iranian government spokesman Gholam-Hossein Elham said on Sunday that his country decided to limit its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) after the UN Security Council imposed new sanctions against the Islamic Republic's nuclear program.

The Iranian government made the decision "after an illegal resolution (UN Security Council Resolution 1747) was passed against Iran last night," Elham said on state television.

He said the measure would have impact on the subsidiary arrangements of the safeguards within Iran's cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog agency IAEA.

The spokesman explained that Iran had accepted these arrangements in 2002 and thereby it had "promptly informed" the IAEA of any decision to build new nuclear facilities.

By limiting its cooperation with the IAEA on these agreements, Iran would no longer inform the IAEA of new installations until six months before they are brought into service, Elham said.

Iran would only reconsider the decision if its nuclear case was returned to the IAEA from the UN Security Council, he said.

The UN Security Council unanimously adopted on Saturday Resolution 1747, which was cosponsored by Britain, France and Germany and incorporating some of the amendments proposed by Indonesia, Qatar and South Africa, urging Iran to suspend uranium enrichment work "without further delay."

The resolution, moderately harsher than those included in previous resolutions on the Iranian nuclear issue, calls for a ban of Iranian arms exports, a freeze of assets of an additional 28 individuals and entities involved in Iran's nuclear and missile programs.

It also calls for voluntary restrictions on travel by the individuals subject to sanctions, on arms sales to Iran, and on new financial assistance or loans to the Iranian government.

It asks the IAEA to report back in 60 days on whether Iran has suspended enrichment work.

UK sailors' fate unclear

British officials do not know where Iran is holding 15 sailors and marines captured in the Persian Gulf, and requests for access to them have been denied, the British Foreign Office said Sunday as Teheran again protested what it called their illegal entry into Iranian waters.

The British ambassador to Iran met with senior officials at the Iranian Foreign Ministry and demanded the immediate release of the captured personnel, the Foreign Office said.
 
Iranian State TV said the ministry summoned Ambassador Geoffrey Adams "to protest the illegal entry of British sailors into Iranian territorial waters." It gave no details about the meeting.

Iran's top military official, General Ali Reza Afshar, said on Saturday the seized Britons were taken to Teheran for questioning and had confessed to what he called an "aggression into the Islamic Republic of Iran's waters." He did not say what would happen to them but said all were being treated well and were in good health.

The Foreign Office said Sunday that British requests for access to the 15 Britons have been denied.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair described Iran's seizing British naval personnel in Iraqi waters as "unjustified and wrong," according to Sky News reports on Sunday.

In a news conference at the European Union summit in Berlin, Blair said "this is a very serious situation and there is no doubt at all that these people were taken from a boat in Iraqi waters."

"I hope the Iranian government understands how fundamental an issue this is for us," he said.

Teheran has described the incident as a "blatant aggression" but Britain has repeatedly insisted the sailors were in Iraqi waters in the Shatt al Arab waterway between Iraq and Iran.

(Xinhua News Agency, China Daily via agencies March 26, 2007)