UN nuclear inspectors today delayed a trip to Iran after Tehran requested more time to prepare ahead of an October 31st deadline to prove it has no secret atomic weapons programme.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said a team of inspectors who had been set to fly to Iran on Sunday would now leave sometime late next week.
The inspectors were headed to Iran as part of stepped up scrutiny by the IAEA ahead of an October 31st deadline for Tehran to enable the United Nations to verify it has no secret atomic weapons programme.
After strong lobbying by the United States for action, the IAEA governing board on September 12th set the deadline and called on Tehran to suspend all uranium-enrichment activities.
Washington, which branded Iran a member of an "axis of evil" with North Korea and pre-war Iraq, believes Iran's enrichment plants may be used to purify uranium for use in a nuclear bomb.
Iran denies the allegation and insists its nuclear ambitions are limited to generating electricity.
Reuters reported this week that IAEA inspectors had found traces of weapons-grade enriched uranium at a second site in Iran, and US President George W. Bush warned Tehran it faced global condemnation. One diplomat told Reuters the discovery could support Tehran's explanation that the discovery of highly enriched uranium at a previous site in Iran was due to contamination from imported components.
But several other diplomats said it could support the US theory that Iran has been secretly purifying uranium for use in a nuclear explosive device.