The United Nations atomic watchdog agency called on Iran on Monday to enhance its cooperation and provide a complete, accurate declaration of all its nuclear activities to clear up questions arising from its failure to disclose certain material and activities.

"Much urgent and essential work still remains before the agency can draw conclusions on the program," International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei told the IAEA Board of Governors in Vienna of Iran's nuclear program, which Tehran says is for peaceful purposes of producing energy.

He noted that Iran, which has signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), had shown increased cooperation in providing information and allowing access to its facilities, and had expressed a readiness to enter into negotiations on concluding an additional protocol allowing enhanced inspections with unannounced on-the-spot visits.

"However, information and access were in some instances slow incoming, piecemeal and reactive, and at times the information provided has been inconsistent with that given previously," he said of the recent visit by IAEA experts to Iran.

"I would strongly urge Iran, in the coming weeks, to show proactive and accelerated cooperation, and to demonstrate full transparency by providing the agency with a complete and accurate declaration of all its nuclear activities.

"It is essential that all outstanding issues -- particularly those involving high enriched uranium -- be brought to closure as soon as possible, to enable the agency to come to a definitive conclusion."

He added that until a new protocol was brought into force he hoped Iran would allow the IAEA prompt access to all sites and locations as well as allowing environmental samples to be taken as needed.

On the situation in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, ElBaradei said that since its withdrawal from the NPT at the beginning of the year, the IAEA had not performed any verification activities and could not therefore provide "any level of assurance about the non-diversion of nuclear material."

(Xinhua News Agency September 9, 2003)