"The action is elsewhere," a diplomat said, referring to plans by Russia and the European Union negotiators -- Britain, France and Germany -- to meet with Iran on December 6, probably in Vienna, to break the deadlock.

Meanwhile in Tehran Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki vowed to continue standing up to pressure from the West to abandon sensitive nuclear technology, saying he considered "the circumstances of the next IAEA meeting to be more constructive and positive than the previous one."

In September, the board of governors of the 35-nation International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) found Iran in non-compliance with the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), paving the way for the Islamic republic to be referred to the Security Council for possible sanctions.

Iran is suspected, despite its denials, of using its drive towards atomic energy as a cover for weapons development.

The IAEA, also in September, called on Iran to cease all nuclear fuel work, to cooperate fully with an IAEA investigation and to return to talks with the European Union on guaranteeing that it will not make atomic weapons.

Iran has complied with none of these demands, even blocking the IAEA from a military site although it has allowed access to another site and handed over over sensitive documents, one from a black market network that contained plans for making the explosive core of an atom bomb, according to an IAEA report released ahead of the board meeting.

Tehran has threatened to limit cooperation with the IAEA and even reverse its suspension of uranium enrichment if the matter is taken to the Security Council.

But diplomats said the Vienna-based IAEA will hold off on referral when it meets on Thursday.

They said the European Union and the United States want to give Moscow time to convince Tehran to agree to a compromise under which it would give up enriching uranium on its soil and instead perform the process -- which produces a substance that can fuel civilian power reactors but could also serve as the raw material for atom bombs -- in Russia.

Iran would thus not master the technology of enriching uranium, which would pose a proliferation risk.

US Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said in Washington on Tuesday that the United States has made progress in mustering support from countries such as China and Russia to insist on a crackdown on Iran, even with a compromise solution.

Iran however rejects abandoning enrichment on its soil.

In Warsaw, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana pointed to a way forward when he said the EU would like "very much to resume dialogue" with Iran but expected concessions, such as to "reduce the level of (uranium) conversion that they are doing now."

Conversion makes the uranium gas that is the feedstock for enriching uranium. While Iran has suspended uranium enrichment, it resumed conversion last August in a move that brought about the collapse of its talks with the EU.

Solana's willingness to allow Iran to reduce the level of conversion rather than halt it entirely is a marked softening of the EU position.

The EU's decision to postpone referral to the Security Council is another concession.

Diplomats said the IAEA board would not even pass a resolution on Iran Thursday but would only hear a summary of the debate by the chairman.

A European diplomat said the aim of the December meeting would be to "talk about (resuming) talks" between Iran and the EU negotiators.

But the diplomat said Iran must be "prepared to discuss seriously" the Russian compromise proposal.

Meanwhile, an Iranian resistance group charged that IAEA inspectors were taken for a "big ride" at the Iranian military site of Parchin at a visit earlier this month.

Inspectors saw "buildings that are far removed from the location of nuclear testing and enrichment-related activities," National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) official Ali Safavi told reporters.

But non-proliferation expert David Albright told AFP that the NCRI has failed "to provide compelling evidence to link these sites to nuclear activities."

All rights reserved. � 2005 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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