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A top Iranian national security official has voiced confidence the Islamic republic will emerge unscathed from a meeting of the UN's nuclear watchdog Monday despite ongoing US pressure. "This session is not causing me any worries. This session will not endanger national security," said Seyed Hossein Mussavian, secretary of the foreign relations commission in Iran's Supreme National Security Council. Quoted by the conservative Qods newspaper, he predicted that in the meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Vienna-based body's board of governors would simply call "for inspections to continue in Iran and remove ambiguities." The IAEA said in a report last month that Iran had failed to declare possibly weapons-related atomic activities despite promising full disclosure and warned Tehran to make sure this did not happen again. Iran had not told the IAEA it had designs for sophisticated "P-2" centrifuges for enriching uranium nor that it had produced polonium-210, an element which could be used as a "neutron initiator (to start the chain reaction) in some designs of nuclear weapons," the report said. This was despite Iran's claim last October that it had given the IAEA a full picture of its nuclear program. The IAEA meeting beginning Monday will follow up on that report, but the United States -- which accuses Iran of using an atomic energy programme as a cover for secret nuclear weapons development -- has already signalled it will not seek to have Iran condemned in the UN Security Council. Speaking in Lisbon Thursday, US Undersecretary of State John Bolton nevertheless said: "We are absolutely determined not to reduce the pressure on Iran." For his part, Mussavian said Iran was ready to continue "cooperation until the ambiguities are gone." He also asserted Iran's deal with the European Union's "Big Three" -- Britain, France and Germany -- to open up its nuclear facilities to tougher inspections had been "efficient" in foiling US efforts to haul Iran before the Security Council for possible sanctions. Britain, France and Germany in October struck a deal with Iran to cooperate with the IAEA, and are still stressing the path of "constructive engagement" 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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