"We do not have any indication that this site has any nuclear-related activities," ElBaradei said.

"We are aware of this new site," he added however at a press conference at an IAEA board of governors meeting.

Iran denied Thursday that it had carried out any nuclear-related work at Parchin, a huge military complex 30 kilometres (19 miles) southeast of Tehran.

A senior US official has told AFP the United States was concerned about high-explosives testing in Parchin that may "amount to (nuclear) weapons intent".

Iranian official Hossein Mousavian said in Vienna that the IAEA had not asked to visit Parchin as part of its investigation of Iran's nuclear program.

He said that "if this is requested by the IAEA, we are fully ready to cooperate."

Mousavian said the IAEA had asked Iran "four weeks ago about reports from open sources of explosive testing but they did not mention Parchin."

Diplomats have told AFP, however, that the IAEA had asked to visit Parchin and that the Iranians have not agreed to the visit.

Parchin is a site for a variety of defense projects, including Defense Industries Organization (DIO) work in chemical explosives.

Iran maintains that its nuclear program is strictly civilian and peaceful and that it is not developing atomic weapons.

A diplomat close to the IAEA confirmed that the agency had asked to send inspectors to Parchin but said this was not included in an IAEA report on Iran published September 1 since "whenever you are in the negotiating process, you should not mention what you are negotiating.

ElBaradei defended himself against charges of hiding information on Parchin.

He said the report contained "all the facts that we think should be brought to the attention of the (IAEA) board (of governors) at this stage.

"The report is comprehensive," he said.

He said the IAEA did not like "other people second-guessing our conclusions nor are we planning to outsource our investigation," a clear reference to the United States.

ElBaradei said the IAEA was "in full control" of its investigation and will continue to do it "with our traditional fairness and objectivity."

"Should there be any new information now or in the future, I can assure you it will be brought immediately before the board," ElBaradei said.

A US official had told AFP last week that the IAEA had, according to verbal accounts, dropped the mention of Parchin in its September 1 report on Iran, as well as a reference to concern about Iran's work with beryllium.

Beryllium has civilian applications but can also be used in combination with polonium to make a neutron initiator that is effectively a trigger for a nuclear bomb.

The official said the concern about Parchin was that the Iranians may be working on testing "high-explosive shaped charges with an inert core of depleted uranium" as a sort of dry test for how a bomb with fissile material would work.

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