IAEA makes 1st visit to Iran centrifuge site

By Mark Heinrich

VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran has allowed top U.N. nuclear monitors to visit an advanced centrifuge development site for the first time in a gesture of transparency about its disputed atomic program, diplomats familiar with the matter said.

One of the diplomats, close to the International Atomic Energy Agency, said the IAEA was nearing the end of an inquiry into Iran's nuclear activity and cited concern a new big power move to increase sanctions on Tehran could hurt the process.

Western diplomats said Iran's move was not significant and was no reason to relieve sanctions pressure on Tehran.

Six world powers agreed in Berlin on Tuesday to the outline of a new U.N. sanctions resolution, although diplomats said the draft lacked punitive trade measures Washington had sought.

The West suspects the Islamic Republic, which hid efforts to enrich uranium from the IAEA until 2003, is using its declared quest for nuclear-generated energy as a front for making bombs.

Iran denies this and has defied U.N. resolutions demanding a nuclear halt by expanding an underground enrichment plant.

After a rare Tehran visit by IAEA Director Mohamed ElBaradei on January 11-12, the agency said Iran agreed to settle remaining questions in the long-stalled inquiry within four weeks and handed over some information about efforts to develop "a new generation" of centrifuges able to refine uranium much faster.

On Wednesday, diplomats familiar with IAEA-Iran relations told Reuters ElBaradei and his safeguards chief, Olli Heinonen, had visited a Tehran site where a centrifuge to replace Iran's current outmoded, breakdown-prone model is being developed.