Even non-aligned nations seem ready to sign on to a draft resolution Europe's big three -- Britain, France and Germany -- are to present when the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) 35-nation board of governors meets in Vienna.

The resolution raps Iran for hiding sensitive nuclear activities but also presses for continued cooperation with Tehran.

"Everyone realizes what's at stake," a diplomat close to talks on the resolution told AFP about the need to determine whether Iran is hiding a nuclear weapons program, as the United States claims, or developing nuclear power for peaceful purposes, as Tehran says.

The diplomat said "no one questions the work of the agency" in finding omissions and discrepancies in Iran's reporting on its atomic activities.

And no one expects the Iranian issue to be decided this June, the diplomat said, as the investigation is far from being completed.

After a year of reports on Iran by the IAEA, diplomats at the board realize that next week's meeting is just "another stage in the process," despite Iran's desire to have the issue closed, the diplomat said.

The board meeting will also review Libya, with the IAEA vowing to persist in investigating Tripoli's now abandoned nuclear weapons program, as much to discover new facts about Libya as about the international smuggling network that supplied it, as well as Iran.

A tough Washington-inspired IAEA board resolution in March had condemned Iran for omitting to report its work into sophisticated P-2 centrifuges which can enrich uranium to bomb-grade levels.

But it drew protests from Iran that included delaying crucial agency investigations, a delay that makes it difficult for the IAEA to draw conclusions this June.

The United States looks ready to sign on this time to the British-French-German draft resolution as it feels the tough language is "moving towards where the United States wants to be."

The United States wants to cut off cooperation with Iran and take it to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions but Washington does not have support at the IAEA for its hardline stance.

The United States clearly expects more revelations to come forth of Iran hiding weapons development, diplomats said.

Diplomats said even the EU-3 were getting impatient with Iran, as the IAEA has been investigating the Iranian program since February 2003 with Iran consistently failing to deliver on promises for full disclosure.

Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi complained on Saturday that ongoing pressure from the IAEA was "unacceptable" and that the draft resolution was "unacceptable unless there are changes made so that it can be acceptable for all parties."

The Euro-3 draft urges Tehran to clarify urgently the origin of contamination by highly enriched uranium (HEU) found by inspectors at three sites in Iran.

Iran admitted Thursday at an IAEA technical briefing to higher levels of contamination by HEU than previously thought, 54 percent instead of 36 percent, but still insisted this came from imported equipment rather than from Iranian enrichment activities, diplomats said.

Uranium enriched to over 20 percent can be used as nuclear fuel but also to make a nuclear bomb. Most nuclear weapons are made with levels of over 80 percent enrichment.

The Iranians also said they had told international black marketeers they would be interested in buying tens of thousands of magnets for P-2 centrifuges, with two magnets used in each centrifuge, the diplomats said.

Two thousand P-2 centrifuges can produce enough HEU for two nuclear devices per year, experts said.

The Iranians have told the IAEA, however, that they were inquiring about such a large purchase of magnets only to get the price down.

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