He also repeated warnings from the Islamic republic it could resume uranium enrichment if the UN agency gives in to pressure from the United States which has accused the country of hiding a nuclear weapons program.

He added that IAEA inspectors had access to all nuclear installations found at military sites, but that no military secrets were being compromised.

Iran's file "will not be closed in June," acknowledged the president, but said it something he did not regard as serious.

"What matters is the direction that the IAEA will take at that point, its movement in the right direction and its recognition of Iran's efforts and cooperation," he told reporters.

"If our file is not closed in June, we hope things return to normal as soon as possible," he said.

"We can at anytime reverse our voluntary decisions," he warned, referring to agreements to suspend uranium enrichment and ratify the additional protocol of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

However, he insisted that Iran still wanted to cooperate with the IAEA and said "it is not our intention to disengage from the NPT."

Iran had been pushing for its file to be withdrawn from active consideration altogether, arguing that its signature of the additional protocol and its opening up of all relevant sites to IAEA inspectors merited the move.

Turning to the matter of military sites, Khatami said "we do not permit people to access our military secrets," but that inspectors "had been allowed onto military sites.

"Where there were military secrets (involved), but without any connection with nuclear matters, we did not allow them access; but the inspectors were able to do their job with regards to nuclear activities," Khatami said.

Diplomats in Vienna have said IAEA inspectors are still waiting for Iran to agree to more open conditions for inspections of military sites.

The United States charges Iran with hiding a program to build the bomb and has called for the IAEA, which has been investigating the Iranian program since February 2003, to refer the country to the UN Security Council for possible international sanctions.

Iran categorically denies those allegations, saying its nuclear program is purely for civilian purposes.

Diplomats close to the UN atomic agency said they were not surprised Khatami had accepted that Iran would not have its nuclear file closed at an agency meeting in June.

"We've made it clear that given the number of unanswered questions, the amount of work that has to be done, that there was never any question we could have wrapped up our work by June," a diplomat close to the IAEA board of governors told AFP in Vienna.

A Western diplomat said: "I think moving in the right direction is clearly increased cooperation on the Iranians' part and their answering in a forthright and complete manner the outstanding questions regarding the nuclear program that have been pending for well over a year now.

"Of course, the file can't be closed. There are still too many unanswered questions," he said.

IAEA director general Mohamed ElBaradei said last week that Iran's cooperation with the agency had been insufficient, adding that he had not drawn any conclusions over the nature of the country's 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.

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