VIENNA (Reuters) - The U.N. nuclear watchdog chief is set to urge full backing on Thursday for steps to clarify Iran's atomic work after Western powers said Tehran must do more to allay suspicions about its agenda.
Mohamed ElBaradei will address the International Atomic Energy Agency's Board of Governors in a debate on whether Iran's compliance so far with a plan to resolve questions about its nuclear development is cause for new hope or further scepticism.
It will be a matter of interpretation. Western board members will dwell on Iran's defiant campaign to enrich uranium despite the transparency plan, diplomats said, while developing nations will highlight Iranian steps towards openness and warn against rising Western pressure they feel could undo the process.
The West fears Iran is covertly trying to build atom bombs. Iran says it wants to get electricity from uranium enrichment.
Iran's top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili said on Thursday he would meet EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana on November 30. The outcome could decide whether Iran will face wider sanctions soon for pursuing nuclear power.
ElBaradei, concerned by U.S.-led criticism of the transparency plan's limitations and resolve to isolate Iran with harsher sanctions, is likely to stress the plan is on track and warrants full support, a U.N. official said.
"He's likely to say that whatever the imperfections, the plan is proceeding according to schedule and the timeline to resolve outstanding questions by around the end of the year remains realistic," the official told Reuters.
He said Iran had provided more information in two months, clarifying how it obtained whatever it needed to build enrichment centrifuges from a black market run by the father of Pakistan's atom bomb, than it had in two years of stonewalling.
"STICK WITH PLAN"
