VIENNA, Sept 14 (AFP) - The United States appeared to falter Tuesday in its push for a hard line over Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program as a meeting of the UN atomic agency was suspended for further talks.
The meeting in Vienna of the International Atomic Energy Agency adjourned its plenary session until further notice in order to allow for informal talks, IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky said.
"There is a lot of hard negotiating going on," IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei told reporters.
IAEA officials said that a resolution might be brought before the IAEA's 35-nation board of governors on Friday, but this was not certain.
The United States is pushing for the atomic agency to adopt a resolution at a meeting in Vienna this week that would set a deadline, possibly as early as October 31, for Tehran to fully suspend uranium enrichment and take other measures, diplomats said.
A non-American western diplomat said the United States was pushing for a tougher resolution than one drafted by Britain, France and Germany, who have stressed constructive engagement, rather than confrontation, with Iran.
That resolution gives Iran a November deadline to allay concerns that it is secretly making atomic weapons, but it does not contain a so-called trigger mechanism -- as demanded by Washington-- under which Iran would automatically be taken to the Security Council if it failed to do so.
Non-aligned states were firmly in support of the European position.
Malaysian IAEA ambassador Hussein Haniff said the non-aligned nations "do not want to see a trigger mechanism because that is pre-emptive."
He said the IAEA should work from reports filed by IAEA director general ElBaradei and that "there is nothing in the report that calls for Iran to be referred to the UN Security Council."