(AP)
Updated: 2007-09-12 19:15

VIENNA, Austria - A senior Iranian envoy accused Western nations Wednesday of "poisoning the environment" at a key meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency by downplaying initial successes of an agency probe into his nation's nuclear past.

Ali Ashgar Soltanieh, Iran's chief delegate to the agency, spoke outside a 35-nation IAEA board meeting as it prepared to end its review of an agency report describing Iran's cooperation with the probe as "a significant step forward."

But the US and its western allies continue to suspect that Iran is exploiting a plan outlining what questions Iran will answer and when as a smoke screen to deflect attention from its continued defiance of a Security Council ban on enrichment, a potential pathway to nuclear arms.

A statement by the European Union on Tuesday appeared to reflect that concern; it focused mostly on Iran's defiance of a UN Security Council ban and gave relatively short shrift to IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei's reported successes in prying answers from Iran.

The statement said the EU has "taken note" of those efforts - the most noncommittal of diplomatic terms that falls substantially short of approval.

A diplomat who spoke to the AP on condition anonymity, because of a bar on divulging proceedings at the closed meeting, said ElBaradei subsequently left the conference to show his disapproval of the EU's lukewarm approach.

"He was disappointed," said the diplomat.

Soltanieh, in comments to The Associated Press, called the West's approach "regrettable," saying: "It has poisoned the environment."

"If they underestimate and question this pact, they are weakening the IAEA," he said.

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