 Iran is ready to give up uranium enrichment on its territory for several years as part of a deal to allay Western fears over its nuclear programme, the chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Wednesday. But Mohamed ElBaradei, who met in Vienna last week with IranÂ’s top nuclear negotiator, said that the question of TehranÂ’s sensitive atomic research activities was still under discussion.
 ElBaradei made his remarks to reporters after conferring here with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Western efforts to rein in Iran’s suspected bid to develop a nuclear bomb. ElBaradei suggested that Tehran’s position was more flexible. “The Iranians, as far as I know, agreed in principle that for a number of years (uranium) enrichment should be part of an international consortium outside Iran,” he said. He said that the Iranians told him that once negotiations resumed on their nuclear programme, they were ready to apply the ‘additional protocol’ to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) aimed at tightening inspections. “There is still this issue of Iran doing R&D (research and development) with regard to enrichment and that’s an issue still being discussed,” ElBaradei said. |