FACTBOX: Outlook in standoff over Iran nuclear activity

(Reuters) - Keen to help defuse Iran's standoff with the West over its nuclear ambitions, International Atomic Energy Agency Director Mohamed ElBaradei left for Iran on Thursday to push for full transparency over its atomic activity.

In talks with Iranian leaders on Friday and Saturday, ElBaradei hopes to "develop ways and means to enhance and accelerate" steps to clarify the past and current scope of Iran's nuclear efforts, an IAEA statement said.

Here are some details on what may follow in the longstanding international dispute over Iran's nuclear activity:

* IAEA-IRAN RELATIONS:

-- ElBaradei hopes to clarify remaining questions about Iran murky nuclear development by the next session of the IAEA's 35-nation governing board in March.

-- But resolving past issues would not put Iran in the clear. Tehran has done little to satisfy international demands for transparency about the scope of its current program, by ending curbs on inspector movements meant to verify there is no more covert activity. ElBaradei will raise this point in Tehran.

-- ElBaradei's next in a series of quarterly reports on Iran's behavior is due in late February ahead of a weeklong meeting of the IAEA board of governors in early March.

* SANCTIONS:

-- A U.S. National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) report released last month took U.S. friends and foes by surprise after years of strident rhetoric from Washington accusing Iran of pursuing a covert nuclear weapons program.

-- The report said that Iran stopped an active nuclear bomb program in 2003 but also that it was still trying to perfect production of enriched uranium, a process that could be eventually reconfigured to make bombs if Iran so decided.

-- The NIE's findings slowed a U.S.-led push for tougher U.N. sanctions against Iran in the near future. But the United States and France said they would still pursue a third round of penalties, despite Russian and Chinese opposition.

-- French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner has said broader sanctions could range from financial and investment freezes to travel and visa bans, an arms embargo and possible restrictions on oil trading.

(Writing by David Cutler, Editing by Mark Heinrich)