Chief U.N. monitor hopes for clarity on Syria site soon

By Mark John

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Wednesday he hoped to be able to shed light in the next few weeks on whether a Syrian facility bombed by Israel last year was an undeclared atomic reactor.

The United States released intelligence last month that it said showed Syria built a reactor with North Korean help before Israeli warplanes destroyed it last September. Damascus has denied the accusations.

Mohamed ElBaradei, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said the IAEA was in contact with Syria to verify the U.S. intelligence and recalled Damascus's obligation to report any nuclear activities to the agency.

"I hope that in the next few weeks we will be able to shed some light on the nature of the facility that was destroyed," he told reporters after talks with EU officials in Brussels.

"Syria has an obligation to notify the agency if they are, if they were, building any nuclear reactors," he said.

Damascus has not granted IAEA inspectors access to the area despite several requests since the air strike, diplomats say.

But Syria's U.N. envoy said two weeks ago it would cooperate with the IAEA investigation and had "nothing to hide".

The U.S. material included photos and other information the CIA said showed the facility's potential for yielding plutonium for nuclear weapons. But there were no indications of any fuel source or reprocessing plant crucial to producing plutonium.

Syria has said the information was forged, comparing it with U.S. reports of mass destruction weapons hidden in Iraq which were never found after U.S.-led forces toppled Saddam Hussein.

Damascus has instead accused Washington of involvement in the air attack by Israel, a staunch U.S. ally widely believed to have the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal.

Syria has repeatedly sparred over the reactor reports with Western nations at a nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty review meeting under way in Geneva, fending off accusations that it might have violated its NPT commitments.

"We refuse to be given sermons on international obligations by a country that has violated all international standards," Syrian NPT envoy Maha Abdulrahim said, alluding to the U.S. invasion of Iraq and support of non-NPT member Israel.

Syria has one declared nuclear facility, a research reactor, subject to regular U.N. inspections.

The IAEA and others have criticized the United States for waiting until last month to share its intelligence, and analysts have raised questions over whether the U.S. material amounted to proof of any undeclared arms program.

Diplomats close to the IAEA say it will be much harder to uncover evidence now than it would have been before the attack.

(Additional reporting by Mark Heinrich in Geneva; editing by Tim Pearce)