VIENNA (AFP) - Iran`s reported rush to make uranium gas that could be used to make nuclear weapons raised alarm bells but this week will show if international efforts to rein in Tehran`s alleged atomic ambitions are still on track, diplomats said.
Iran said Sunday it was still committed to suspending its sensitive uranium enrichment activities as of Monday and that alarm over its nuclear activities was merely "propaganda".
"We have said that we will suspend our enrichment activities and we will do it," foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters.
Iran agreed a week ago in a deal with Britain, France and Germany to suspend as of Monday all its uranium enrichment activities, including making uranium gas, as a confidence-building measure in order to avoid possible UN sanctions over what the United States charges is a covert nuclear weapons program.
But diplomats in Vienna, where the UN watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is to meet Thursday on Iran, said the Islamic Republic was continuing to produce the uranium feedstuff that is the first step in the enrichment process, only days before Monday`s ban.
A senior diplomat in Vienna told AFP "this was not a good sign" and not "very helpful."
But the diplomat said positive efforts with a "long-term focus" continued as Britain, France and Germany finished over the weekend a first draft of a resolution on Iran`s nuclear program to present to the IAEA`s 35-nation board of governors when it meets Thursday.
The board will decide whether or not to take Iran before the UN Security Council for possible sanctions, as sought by Washington.
The IAEA will be verifying Iran`s enrichment suspension. Diplomats in Vienna said adhering to the suspension will be a key test for Iran, which claims its nuclear program is a strictly peaceful effort to produce electricity.
Enriched uranium, made by spinning uranium gas in what can be cascades of thousands of centrifuges, can serve as fuel for nuclear reactors or as the raw explosive material for atomic bombs.
US President George W. Bush sharply warned Iran about racing to make uranium gas before the ban began.
"We`re concerned about reports that show that prior to a certain international meeting, they`re willing to speed up processing of materials that could lead to a nuclear weapon," Bush said.
The British-French-German draft resolution takes into account Iran`s many past failures to report sensitive nuclear activities documented in a report this month by IAEA director-general Mohamed ElBaradei, said the senior diplomat in Vienna, who asked not to be named.
ElBaradei said that after a two-year investigation the IAEA had found no proof of a secret Iranian nuclear weapons program but could not yet conclude there was no covert activity.
The diplomat said that besides looking back at the almost two decades of Iran`s hiding its nuclear program, the resolution will also "reflect what is in the Paris agreement," in which Iran agreed to suspend its enrichment activities.
The United States would like to see a so-called "trigger mechanism" that would say that if Iran fails to honor the enrichment suspension, the matter would automatically go to the Security Council.
The diplomat said the text "has some sort of trigger language" but that it was "indirect."
"The Iranians will see it and will not be surprised," he said.
US diplomats have in the past pushed for tough, direct language against Iran but have had to compromise as the European trio stress constructive engagement rather than confrontation with the Islamic Republic.
Under IAEA investigation since February 2003, Iran agreed in October 2003 to suspend the actual enrichment of uranium but continued support activities such as making centrifuges and converting yellowcake into uranium gas.
Such conversion, however, is also to be suspended in the enrichment halt scheduled for Monday.
11/21/2004 - 12:01 GMT - AFP