VIENNA, Austria — Iran is stonewalling the U.N. nuclear watchdog on "possible military dimensions" to its suspect nuclear program, officials said Friday, urging the regime to clarify the mysterious role of a foreign explosives expert and shed light on other issues.
A senior Iranian envoy angrily denounced the assessment as "fabrication," insisting his country has gone out of its way to be transparent and cooperative.
In its latest report, the International Atomic Energy Agency said it has pressed the Islamic Republic to clarify its uranium enrichment activities and reassure the world that it's not trying to build an atomic weapon.
Iran insists its nuclear program is peaceful and geared solely toward generating electricity. The United States and important allies contend the country is covertly trying to build an atomic weapon.
Before six-nation talks on Iran on Wednesday, and a key meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation board a week after that, the agency acknowledged that Iran has been producing nuclear fuel at a slower rate and has allowed U.N. inspectors broader access to its main nuclear complex in the southern city of Natanz and to a reactor in Arak.
But the Vienna-based agency delivered a blunt assessment: "Iran has not suspended its enrichment-related activities."
"There remain a number of outstanding issues which give rise to concerns and which need to be clarified to exclude the existence of possible military dimensions to Iran's nuclear program," said the text, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press.
It said the agency "does not consider that Iran has adequately addressed the substance of the issues, having focused instead on the style and form ... and providing limited answers and simple denials."
The report contained a reference to a "foreign national with explosives expertise" who apparently assisted the Iranian nuclear program. It did not identify the expert by name or nationality, and officials would not elaborate.
Iran's chief representative tothe agency, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, said he found the report "very frustrating," and angrily suggested that U.S. intelligence was working to undermine Iran's credibility.
"America alleges that Iran has a Manhattan Project" to build a bomb, Soltanieh said. "This is ridiculous. This game is enough. It should be over. ... We have tried to take a very logical and pragmatic approach."
"All these things are fabrications. We have been too transparent and cooperative with the agency," he added.
"We are very concerned that they are not addressing the concerns of the international community," U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said Friday in Washington.
"They say they want to have the right to a civilian nuclear energy program, but they also have the obligation to show the world that that is indeed what they intend to do," he said.
President Barack Obama has given Iran something of an ultimatum: Stop enriching uranium - which, if done at a high level, can produce fissile material for the core of a nuclear weapon - or face harsher penalties.
Information for this article was contributed from Washington by Foster Klug of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 5 on 08/29/2009