UAE seeks U.S. congress nod for nuclear agreement

ABU DHABI (Reuters) - The United Arab Emirates said on Monday it was working to secure U.S. lawmakers' endorsement of a planned nuclear energy cooperation agreement with the United States, the Gulf state's top Western ally.

The Bush administration is holding back on signing the deal because some U.S. lawmakers have voiced concern that the UAE is not doing enough to curb nuclear plans in nearby Iran.

"Representatives of the U.S. administration and the UAE government are working closely with members of Congress to inform them about the agreement and seek their views," the official WAM news agency quoted the country's ambassador to Washington, Yousef al-Otaiba, as saying.

"The proposed ... agreement sets a new standard in ensuring the highest standards of safety, security and non-proliferation within the UAE program."

Iran, just across the Gulf from the UAE, is at loggerheads with the United States over its nuclear program. Tehran's refusal to stop uranium enrichment has drawn three rounds of United Nations sanctions since 2006.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice signed a memorandum of understanding with the UAE in April pledging to cooperate on a peaceful nuclear energy program, with the UAE promising to be a "responsible partner."

Once enacted, the pact would allow for the transfer of nuclear-related components and materials.

But Florida Representative Ileana Ros-Lethinen, the ranking Republican on the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, introduced legislation this week blocking the deal unless stringent conditions were met.

She said the UAE needed to do more to cooperate with international efforts to curb Tehran's ambitions.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said on Friday there was agreement with the UAE on the text but it was unclear when it may be signed pending consultations with U.S. lawmakers.

The UAE has promised to draw up laws to govern the sector and establish a nuclear regulatory authority and an international advisory board of nuclear experts.

It has also signed a nuclear cooperation deal with France and pledged to work with the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, the IAEA.

Asked about reports of the planned U.S. nuclear deal with the UAE, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hassan Qashqavi said every country had a right to diversify its energy sources but it showed double standards when Washington opposed Tehran's plans.

"Any country might make an effort to diversify its peaceful sources of energy and these are positive measures. That is why we proposed the idea of a consortium with regional countries," he told a news conference.

He was referring to an Iranian proposal to set up a regional consortium to enrich uranium to make nuclear fuel. The U.N. Security Council has demanded that Iran stop its own enrichment work, which the West says is to make bombs. Iran denies this.

"This issue is the problem for the American side which wants to have a selective approach toward this natural right (to use peaceful nuclear energy)," he said.

(Reporting by Inal Ersan in Dubai and Hashem Kalantari in Tehran; Editing by Dominic Evans)