VIENNA (AFP) - The United States and three major European nations have reached agreement in Vienna on a draft resolution on Iran`s alleged nuclear weapons program in a breakthrough that could lead to the text being adopted Friday by the UN nuclear watchdog, a US official told AFP.

In a major US concession, the resolution does not set an October 31 ultimatum for Iran to comply with demands from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), according to a copy of the text obtained by AFP.

"The United States ... and the EU 3 (Britain, France and Germany) have reached agreement on a draft resolution that will be considered" Friday by the IAEA board of governors, State Department spokesman Edward Vasquez said Thursday.

Many members of the IAEA`s 35-nation board, including non-aligned nations, had been hostile to the US`s insistence on an ultimatum.

Non-aligned states were to meet Friday at 0900 GMT and a plenary session of the board, which has been meeting here since Monday, was scheduled for the afternoon, diplomats said.

The breakthrough between the United States, Canada and Australia on one side and Britain, France and Germany on the other came Thursday evening at a meeting between just the United States and France and Britain, diplomats said.

They said the United States had complained that Germany was especially strong in resisting the US hard line while France and Britain were more willing to negotiate.

The United States, which charges that Iran is secretly developing nuclear weapons, would like to see the IAEA judge Iran in non-compliance with nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) safeguards and take Tehran before the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.

Washington wants to put an end to an IAEA investigation that started in February 2003 as it feels Iran has been buying time through extending the diplomatic process in order to push ahead with a secret weapons program.

The United States on Thursday claimed satellite images of a military site reported in the media showed Iran`s intention to manufacture nuclear weapons but the charges were categorically denied by Tehran.

A Western diplomat close to the talks in Vienna said that despite the United States acceding to demands from the Europeans to drop the ultimatum, "the language is still pretty tough. There are the equivalent of two strong deadlines in the text."

The draft says it is "imperative" for Iran to clear up "outstanding issues" with the IAEA "before the board`s (next meeting on) 25 November," such as "the sources and reasons for enriched uranium contamination and the import, manufacture and use of centrifuges" in order for IAEA director Mohammed ElBaradei to file a comprehensive report.

It also said it "is necessary that Iran immediately suspend all enrichment-related activities, including the manufacture or import of centrifuge components, the assembly and testing of centrifuges and the production of feed material" for enriching uranium, the process that uses centrifuges to produce what can be fuel for civilian reactors but also the explosive core for atomic bombs.

Iran had agreed in October 2003 to suspend enrichment but has since backtracked on suspending all related activities and had alarmed the United States this month by saying it was ready to convert 37 tons or uranium mineral yellowcake into the gas that is the feed material for enriching uranium.

The draft says the IAEA board of governors will decide in November "whether or not further steps are appropriate in relation to Iran`s obligations under its NPT (nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty) safeguards agreement and to the requests made of Iran by the board in this and previous resolutions."

Such steps could be to take Iran to the Security Council, although there is no automatic requirement for the board to do this, as the United States had wanted.

The Western diplomat said the United States had not insisted on its extreme hard-line demands since "it wanted to go forward (on the Iranian issue) with its friends."

Iran`s delegation chief in Vienna Hossein Mousavian told AFP: "I don`t believe it`s an important resolution."

He said Iran, which insists its nuclear program is a strictly peaceful civilian effort to generate electricity, cared about the report of IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei to the IAEA board in November "and the final decision of the board."

Mousavian said the Americans had strived for an ultimatum "since they need this propaganda for the US presidential election."