IAEA to inspect nuclear plant

       Inspectors are to visit Iran's new uranium enrichment plant on Oct 25, UN atomic watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei said yesterday, adding that "concerns" remained about Teheran's nuclear aims.
       Iran had given the assurance that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors would be given access to the new plant which is being built in a mountain near the holy city of Qom,south of Teheran, Mr ElBaradei told a news conference in Teheran.
       "There are concerns about Iran's future intentions and this is not a verification thing," he said."We are concerned but we are in no way panicking about Iran's nuclear programme."
       ElBaradei was speaking after holding talks with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other officials about Iran's nuclear energy programme, which the West believes is a cover for a nuclear weapons production. Mr Ahmadinejad was later quoted by the Iranian news agency Isna as saying that all matters between the Islamic republic and the IAEA had been ironed out.
       "Because of good cooperation between Iran and the agency, important issues were resolved and today there is no ambiguous issue left between Iran and the agency," he said.
       Mr ElBaradei said that Teheran had been late in disclosing the fact it was building a new uranium enrichment plant near Qom.
       "Based on the IAEA regulations, all countries should inform the IAEA on the day they begin construction" of a nuclear plant, he said. Iran informed the agency on Sept 21, about a year after it started constructing it.
       Mr ElBaradei also announced that officials from the US, Russia, France and Iran would hold talks in Vienna on Oct 19 on the possiblity of enriching Teheran's uranium abroad.
       The meeting is a follow up to talks in Geneva last week between six world powers and Iran over Teheran's nuclear ambitions, the first such talks in 15 months. Iran tentatively agreed in Geneva to ship some of its stocks of low enriched uranium (LEU) abroad for processing into fuel for an internationally supervised research reactor in Teheran.
       Amid fears among Western powers that Iran may have amassed enough LEU eventually to create a nuclear bomb,senior US officials and analysts have said the move might help ease tensions.
       Mr ElBaradei said he was "very pleased" about the enrichment project as it was a "confidence building" initiative between world powers and Teheran.
       Uranium enrichment is central to the controversy: highly enriched uranium can be used in atomic weapons.