Mark Heinrich

Iran broke a transparency law of the UN nuclear watchdog by failing to disclose much earlier a nuclear plant, Mohamed ElBaradei said.

World powers will bank on last week's revelation of a second uranium enrichment plant in Iran for leverage in rare talks set for Thursday.

Iran has told the UN nuclear watchdog that it has a second uranium enrichment plant under construction, diplomats said on Friday.

The US said on Wednesday Iran was nearing the ability to make atom bombs by stockpiling enriched uranium.

The nuclear watchdog chief on Thursday angrily rejected Israeli accusations of bias in a probe by his agency into allegations of a Syrian atomic site.

Governors of the UN nuclear watchdog failed to agree on a successor to Mohamed ElBaradei on Friday, opening the field to new candidates.

The United States on Monday promised strong diplomacy with Iran, Syria and North Korea to help the United Nations nuclear watchdog.

North Korea barred United Nations monitoring throughout its Yongbyon nuclear complex on Thursday.

A UN inquiry into intelligence allegations of secret atom-bomb research in Iran has reached a standstill, an IAEA report said on Monday.

Forty-five nations met on Thursday to consider lifting a ban on nuclear trade with India, a move which will help launch a US-Indian nuclear deal.

The five major nuclear-armed powers said on Friday the Non-Proliferation Treaty was under threat and cited Iran's uranium enrichment campaign in a rare joint call for action to shore up the NPT. Iran says it wants only electricity from enrichment, which can also produce atom bomb fuel if the process is adjusted.

Iran has slowed the installation of centrifuge machines that enrich uranium for its controversial nuclear programme, the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency said on Monday. Western powers have condemned Tehran's expansion of enrichment work in defiance of United Nations demands.