VIENNA, April 23: The UN nuclear monitoring agency on Wednesday announced a “milestone” agreement with Iran that aims to provide answers about allegations Tehran tried to develop nuclear weapons under cover of a peaceful atomic programme.

International Atomic Energy Agency spokeswoman Melissa Fleming divulged no details in a brief statement about the deal. But IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei called the agreement “a milestone” that — if successful — should signal the end of his organisation’s years of attempts to probe Tehran’s nuclear programme.

“An agreement was reached during the meetings in Tehran on a process that aims to clarify the so-called alleged (nuclear weapons) studies during the month of May,” Fleming said in a statement from the Vienna-based agency. She was alluding to talks on Monday and Tuesday between senior Iranian officials and IAEA Deputy Director General Olli Heinonen.

ElBaradei, in Sarajevo before collecting an award from a Bosnian university, said he was hopeful that by the May deadline “we will be in a position to get the explanation and clarification from Iran as to these alleged studies,” adding: “This, in my view, is a positive step.”

He called the issue “the only remaining topic for us to investigate about past and present Iran nuclear activities”. On April 13, Gholam Reza Aghazadeh, the head of Iran’s nuclear programme, abruptly cancelled a meeting with ElBaradei. The Aghazadeh-ElBaradei meeting had been considered a test of whether Iran will continue to stonewall the IAEA in its attempt to investigate the alleged military programmes.

Iran is under three sets of UN Security Council sanctions for its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment and meet other council demands designed to ease fears its civilian nuclear programme is a cover for attempts to make atomic arms.

While the Islamic Republic says its enrichment programme is meant to generate nuclear fuel, its past nuclear secrecy and defiance of the Security Council are fuelling fears it could decide to use the technology to make the weapons-grade enriched uranium used for the fissile core of nuclear arms.

Iran ready:

Iran is ready to discuss its nuclear project with any country but will not yield to international pressure to halt the atomic work, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a speech on Wednesday.

“The Iranian nation is in favour of talks to resolve the (nuclear) issue with any of you (countries). We will slap those who want Iran to abandon its right (to nuclear technology) on the mouth,” Ahmadinejad said in a televised address in the western city of Hamedan.

Ahmadinejad had earlier ruled out any talks with the West over Iran’s disputed nuclear programme, saying Iran would only discuss the issue with the UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA.

US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown vowed last week to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear bomb, possibly by expanding sanctions.

Ahmadinejad said no power in the world “would dare to violate” Iran’s rights.

“They (the West) should know that our nation will preserve all its rights with logic and unity,” Ahmadinejad said, as thousands of people chanted “nuclear energy is our obvious right.”—AP/Reuters