Iran's nuclear chief is proposing a "full supervision" of its nuclear programme by the UN nuclear watchdog agency for five years in return for lifting of sanctions against Tehran.
Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani did not elaborate what he meant by full supervision or what it would include. He made the comments in an interview with the semiofficial ISNA news agency today.
Iran's nuclear programme is already subject to some International Atomic Energy Agency inspections.
Referring to the agency, he said: "We proposed that the agency keep Iran's nuclear programme and activities under full supervision for five years provided that sanctions against Iran are lifted."
The United States and its allies accuse Iran of seeking to build a nuclear weapon. Iran insists its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes.
Iran is making headway toward rolling out advanced uranium enrichment machines that could speed up its production of nuclear reactor fuel as well as weapons-grade material if, as the West fears, it ultimately tries to assemble atomic bombs.
But it remains unclear whether Tehran, under increasingly strict international sanctions that affect its ability to import components, can manufacture the machines in the industrial-scale numbers needed to revolutionise its enrichment activity.
For years, Tehran has been seeking to replace the breakdown-prone 1970s vintage model of centrifuge it now uses to refine uranium, but the changeover has been hampered by sanctions restricting access to vital parts, analysts say.
In a sign the Islamic state may now be making some progress, a UN nuclear watchdog report says Iran has begun installing two newer versions for larger-scale testing at a research and development site near the central city of Natanz.
The confidential report, obtained by Reuters, says Iran had told the International Atomic Energy Agency it had also started to operate 54 of these more advanced machines on an experimental basis.
Mr Abbasi-Davani said the country was not yet ready to mass-produce new centrifuges but that it planned to set up "production lines" to manufacture them.
If Iran eventually succeeds in introducing them in industrial quantities for enrichment, it could significantly shorten the time needed to stockpile material that can have civilian as well as military purposes, if refined much further.
Agencies