Head of Iran's atomic energy body resigns: report

TEHRAN (Reuters) - The head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, the body in charge of the country's controversial nuclear program, has resigned after 12 years in the post, Iranian media reported Thursday.

The ISNA news agency said it had spoken to Gholamreza Aghazadeh and he confirmed his resignation but it gave no details on the reason for him quitting.

The organization leads a nuclear program that has put Tehran at odds with the West, which fears it is aimed at making bombs. Tehran says it is for peaceful power purposes.

In April, Aghazadeh spoke at Iran's National Nuclear Day, saying the country had further expanded sensitive nuclear enrichment activity.

Aghazadeh is an ally of former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who backed opposition candidate Mirhossein Mousavi in last month's disputed election, but the media reports did not say whether his resignation was linked to the vote.

He also served as a minister in the 1980s, when Mousavi was prime minister.

Ahmadinejad won a second four-year term in the June 12 election, but Mousavi says it was rigged and that the next government will be illegitimate.

Aghazadeh was oil minister for more than a decade between 1985-97 and also served as a deputy prime minister during the 1980s.

He become head of the Atomic Energy Organization in 1997 and stayed in the post after Ahmadinejad first won the presidency in 2005, despite backing the candidacy of Rafsanjani in that year's election race.

The official IRNA news agency quoted the spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization as confirming the resignation.

(Reporting by Zahra Hosseinian; writing by Fredrik Dahl; editing by Angus MacSwan)