Iran Ready to Talk on UN Checks

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, August 29, 2003

Iran Ready to Talk on UN Checks

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Iran told Japan Thursday it was ready to start negotiations with the United Nations' atomic watchdog on snap inspections of its nuclear programme, a move that could help clear the way for Tokyo to clinch a US$2 billion contract to develop a giant oil field.

Resource-poor Japan has been juggling its desire to develop the Azadegan oil field with pressure from the United States - its main security ally - to back off because of concerns that Teheran is developing nuclear weapons.

Iran says its programme is for peaceful purposes only.

Iran's foreign minister gave Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi a letter from Iranian President Mohammad Khatami stating that Teheran wanted to broaden co-operation with the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and would begin talks on signing an Additional Protocol, allowing snap inspections of nuclear sites, a Japanese Foreign Ministry official said.

Iran had said on Tuesday it was ready to sign the IAEA's Additional Protocol but wanted clarification on "the preservation of its sovereignty" under the enhanced inspection programme, a reservation analysts said could delay final agreement.

"Certainly, we are ready to co-operate more fully with the IAEA," the Iranian minister, Kamal Kharrazi, said in an interview with CNN.

"But before signing the Additional Protocol, certainly the ambiguities have to be removed and we have to engage in negotiations to make sure all rights are fulfilled and all dignities respected," he added.

Kharrazi told reporters after meeting Japanese Trade Minister Takeo Hiranuma that talks on the deal to develop Azadegan, one of the world's largest untapped oil fields, were "moving in the right direction."

A Japanese-backed consortium missed a June 30 deadline and lost exclusive rights to the deal, but Iran has said it still hoped to conclude the contract with Japan.

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