Iran's alleged research into nuclear warheads remains a matter of serious concern and Tehran should provide more information on its missile-related activities, the U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Monday.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) also said, in its latest report on Iran, that Tehran was holding back information on high-explosives testing relating to its nuclear programme.
It said Tehran had 3,500 uranium enrichment centrifuges working at its Natanz nuclear facility, slightly more than earlier this year, and a few more advanced centrifuges were also being tested.
The IAEA has been pressing Tehran for answers to Western intelligence allegations that Iran has covertly studied how to design atomic bombs. Iran has dismissed the intelligence as baseless, forged or irrelevant.
Iran's research into "high explosives testing and the missile re-entry vehicle project remained a matter of serious concern", said the report, which will be passed on to the United Nations Security Council.
"Substantive explanations are required from Iran to support its statements on the alleged studies and on other information with a possible military dimension," the agency said, though it added that it had not detected any actual use of nuclear material in connection with the alleged studies.
"We have not got substantive answers and we could have gotten those earlier," a senior U.N. official said.
The next step is up to Tehran and to the IAEA board of governors, which meets next week in Vienna, he said. "They (Iran) know what we need, everything is listed here that we need, the questions are clear...we need answers."
Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's ambassador to the agency, said the IAEA report showed that Tehran's nuclear programme was peaceful, Iran's semi-official Fars News Agency reported.
The report "shows Iran's entire nuclear activities are peaceful," Fars quoted him as saying. "Once more it has been explicitly underlined that there has been absolutely no evidence regarding the diversion of Iran's nuclear activities or materials toward military purposes," he said.
IRAN 'BLOCKING' IAEA
