The United States on Tuesday accused Iran of being in breach of safeguards agreements from the Nuclear Non-proliferation treaty but supported a proposed "last chance" for Tehran to clear up questions about its atomic program, at a meeting in Vienna of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

France, Germany and Britain jointly called on Iran to fully disclose its contested nuclear program by the end of October, in a draft resolution submitted Tuesday to the 35-nation IAEA board of governors.

It called on "Iran to provide accelerated cooperation and full transparency" to the IAEA.

The resolution did not say what would happen if Iran did not cooperate but a Western diplomat said what was important was "that a signal is sent, that a clear bright line is laid down that Iran must comply with IAEA requests in a quick, complete and transparent manner."

Washington claims Tehran is hiding a program to develop atomic weapons. US President George W. Bush has identified Iran as part of an "axis of evil" of countries trying to develop weapons of mass destruction that included then Saddam-ruled Iraq and North Korea.

The IAEA board will be debating Wednesday the resolution, which is co-sponsored by the United States and Japan.

The draft came after Ken Brill, the US ambassador to the IAEA, had said: "The United States believes the facts already established would fully justify an immediate finding of non-compliance by Iran" with international non-proliferation accords. Such a finding by the IAEA could send the issue to the UN Security Council.

Brill said Iran's cooperation with the IAEA "has at best been episodic and reluctant and has frequently featured delay, denial of access and misinformation."

He said the IAEA is "at this time unable to provide assurance... that Iran has not diverted nuclear material to non-peaceful purposes."

Brill said the United States had "taken note of the desire of other member states to give Iran a last chance to stop its evasions."

A Western diplomat said the draft was in fact a US-written resolution and already had majority support from the 35-nation IAEA board.

A Turkish diplomat said his country, which had been holding out, now supported the resolution.

The draft resolution said Iran should "remedy all failures identified by the Agency" in complying with nuclear non-proliferation safeguards.

These include "providing a full declaration" about the importers of "components stated (in an IAEA report) to have been contaminated with high enriched uranium particles," which could be weapons-grade, the resolution said.

It said third countries, which could refer to Pakistan, should "cooperate closely and fully" in determining who supplied Iran with the contaminated uranium.

The resolution said Iran should also allow IAEA inspectors free access for "environmental sampling" at suspicious sites and resolve questions about gas centrifuges which could be used in enriching uranium.

Iran should also sign an additional protocol to allow IAEA inspectors to make unannounced inspections, the resolution said.

In Sofia, Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi said, in a clear reference to the United States, that he hoped the IAEA would not yield to "political pressure" and create problems for Iran in cooperating with the agency.

He said Iran has already "basically met the requirements of the additional protocol" by opening itself up to inspections.

Tehran insists that it has fully cooperated with the IAEA and denies it is trying to develop nuclear weapons.

WAR.WIRE