Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammad Ali Hosseini said that the halt of U.S. cooperation with "Zionists" (Israel) is a step towards nuclear disarmament worldwide, the official IRNA news agency reported on Wednesday.

The "halt of U.S. cooperation with the Zionist regime could be regarded as one of the practical steps towards nuclear disarmament, " Hosseini told IRNA in an exclusive interview on Tuesday.

"Any measure taken by the U.S. regarding nuclear disarmament should be verifiable, transparent and irreversible," Hosseini said, adding that U.S. officials should take more practical steps if they were honest about helping nuclear disarmament worldwide.

He also criticized some certain nuclear states that are exerting pressure on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to change it from a technical and specialized body to a political establishment, urging the IAEA authorities to "resist those pressures" and maintain their technical approach.

Hosseini is head of the Iranian delegation participating in the Preparatory Committee of the 2010 Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference currently being held in New York, scheduled from May 4 to 15.

On Tuesday, U.S. President Barack Obama said in his message to the meeting that "the United States believes that the NPT's framework is sound: countries with nuclear weapons will move towards disarmament, countries without nuclear weapons will not acquire them, and all countries can have access to peaceful nuclear energy."

Washington and its allies, including Israel, have accused Tehran of being involved in developing nuclear weapons secretly. Iran, however, has denied the charges and insisted that its nuclear program is for generating electricity only.

(Xinhua News Agency May 6, 2009)