(AP)
Updated: 2007-08-22 07:26

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran and the UN nuclear watchdog have reached an agreement on a timetable to respond to questions over Tehran's controversial nuclear activities, both sides said Tuesday.

Iranian and IAEA officials did not elaborate on the time frame. But the agreement was expected to provide for easier inspection of Iran's nuclear facilities by the IAEA as well as urge Tehran to provide detailed answers on remaining questions over its nuclear activities.

The agreement was announced at the end of two days of talks in Tehran between senior officials from the International Atomic Energy Agency and Iranian nuclear negotiators.

"We have now in front of us an agreed working plan," IAEA chief of delegation Olli Heinonen told reporters. "We have a timeline for the implementation."

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Senior Iranian nuclear negotiator Javad Vaeedi also said the two sides agreed on a framework to resolve the outstanding issues over Tehran's nuclear activities. "The talks produced very great and constructive progress," he said.

The two sides did not say what the lingering questions were, but it is believed that they include questions over Iran's past experiments with small amounts of plutonium.

The talks were seen as critical because they will be the basis for a progress report the IAEA chief, Mohamed ElBaradei, is scheduled to deliver before the agency's September meeting. Heinonen said he expected that report to be ready by next week and would include details from the talks.

Past IAEA reports expressed concerns that Tehran has secretly developed elements of a more sophisticated enrichment program than it has made public, that it might not have accounted for all the plutonium it processed in the past, and that its military might have been involved in enrichment. Tehran insists its nuclear program is strictly civilian-run.

Two previous rounds of talks, in Vienna and Tehran earlier this summer, appeared to have improved relations between Iran and the UN agency.

But Tuesday's agreement coincided with a warning from Iran's top nuclear negotiator to the U.N. Security Council that imposing new sanctions against Iran will make Tehran's cooperation with the IAEA "fruitless," state television reported.

Ali Larijani also accused the United States of seeking to undermine the progress achieved during talks between Iran and the IAEA in order to heighten tensions.

"If they take any illogical move (to impose new sanctions), the trend of Iran's cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency as well as the talks will become sterile," state television quoted Larijani as saying.

The US and its allies fear Tehran is using its nuclear program as a cover to produce atomic weapons. Iran denies the charge, saying its program is solely geared toward generating electricity.

Iran has been agreeing to make new concessions in an apparent attempt to stave off a third round of sanctions. Last month, Tehran offered a rare concession and allowed IAEA inspectors to revisit a heavy-water reactor under construction that has been off-limits since April.