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Talks on how to deal with Iran accused by the United States of working on a covert nuclear programme stalled as Washington takes a hard line and Europe pursues a policy of "constructive engagement," a Western diplomat said Sunday. "There's no forward motion. We're still stuck regarding a proposed text dealing with Iran's violation of its NPT (nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty) safeguards agreement," to be presented to the UN nuclear watchdog, the diplomat said. The deadlock persists despite the fact that negotiations are taking place "at the highest level. It's all in the national capitals," he said. His comments put a damper on optimism expressed in Washington ahead of the weekend that a common approach on keeping up pressure on Iran could be found. Tehran is suspected of hiding an atomic weapons program. A meeting of the 35-nation board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was adjourned Friday until Wednesday after the United States, Britain, France and Germany failed to agree on a resolution on Iran in two days of closed-door talks. The United States, which included Iran in an "axis of evil" of countries trying to make nuclear weapons, along with North Korea and Iraq before the ouster of Saddam Hussein, has sought to get the IAEA to declare Iran in "non-compliance" with the NPT. The move could bring the issue before the UN Security Council, which could then slap sanctions on Iran. But at the meeting of the IAEA board, Britain, France and Germany, the so-called Euro 3, presented a draft resolution that goes easy on Iran, as they claim that antagonizing Tehran could prompt it to cut off cooperation with the The IAEA board is reviewing a report from the agency's director general, Mohamed ElBaradei, that details 18 years of hidden nuclear activities by Iran, including making small amounts of plutonium and enriched uranium. ElBaradei said the IAEA had no "evidence," however, that Iran is developing nuclear weapons, with investigations continuing. But US ambassador to the IAEA, Kenneth Brill, said the IAEA was damaging its credibility since all signs from Iran's nuclear program pointed to "just one purpose -- the pursuit of nuclear weapons." The United States has now dropped demands to take Iran immediately before the UN Security Council but the US-Euro 3 divide is still not being bridged, diplomats said. They said that while the United States was ready to drop its demand for "non-compliance" to be mentioned, it still felt the draft resolution was not tough enough. An example of this is the wording of a second version of the resolution from the Euro 3 that "calls upon Iran to adhere strictly to the terms of its Safeguards Agreement," according to a text seen by AFP. A diplomat said the United States wants this to read "calls upon Iran to comply . . . " but the Euro 3 are opposed to the term "comply." He added that the Americans also want to make sure there is a "trigger mechanism" to take Iran automatically to the Security Council if it violates NPT safeguards in the future. The Americans think they are being flexible but feel that "no resolution is better than a bad resolution," a Western diplomat said. Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi on Sunday appealed for multilateralism to prevail at the IAEA and said "the other approach is being pursued by the US and two or three other countries, and that is not based on realities." Javier Solana, the European Union's top diplomat, said in Brussels last week that Europe would follow a policy of "constructive engagement" and praised Iran for being "honest" in adopting a policy of full disclosure in October and detailing its past violations of NPT safeguards. But US Secretary of State Colin Powell said Solana had gone too far since Iran was only honoring its obligations by being open about its nuclear program. All rights reserved. Copyright 2003 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse. Quick Links
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