IAEA Chief Hails 'Intensive' Nuclear Talks with Iran

International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano hailed "intensive" talks on Iran's nuclear program during a visit to Tehran on Monday, state television said, but spoke of no progress on a key inspection issue.

Iran's lead nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, also lauded the "good talks" he had with Amano, according to the broadcaster IRIB.

The upbeat assessments were seen as significant ahead of broader, more substantive talks to take place on Wednesday in Baghdad between an Iranian delegation led by Jalili and representatives of world powers in the so-called P5+1 group.

"We had expansive and intensive talks in a positive atmosphere," Amano was quoted as saying by IRIB, which added that he praised the "good atmosphere" of the discussions.

Iranian officials, however, did not permit foreign journalists to approach Amano, so it was impossible to independently verify his comments.

"Certainly the progress of these talks will have a positive effect on Iran and the P5+1 negotiations. Of course these two issues are different from one another, but can underpin each other," Amano was quoted as saying by IRIB.

Jalili said of the discussions: "We had very good talks with Amano and, God willing, we will have good cooperation in the future."

The two discussed nuclear disarmament, halting nuclear weapons proliferation, and the peaceful use of nuclear energy as permitted under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, IRIB said.

They also discussed "consolidating" the U.N. nuclear surveillance agency to make it more effective in pursuing those goals, it added.

One area of contention was hinted at, however, when Amano reacted to Iran's insistence that a "road map" be established for its response to IAEA suspicions of nuclear weapons research.

"I will not get into details," he was quoted as saying. "The agency has its own view and Iran has its own."

That had bearing on the U.N. agency's demands -- repeatedly rebuffed by Tehran -- that it be given access to a key military installation, Parchin, outside Tehran, where the IAEA suspects explosives tests for nuclear warhead research have been conducted.

Western governments have accused Iran of removing evidence at the site, while Amano has said that satellite imagery showed unspecified activity there.

Iran says Parchin is not a designated nuclear site and thus it is not obliged to permit IAEA inspections, although it last did so in 2005.

It says if it did allow inspections of the site, they would have to be part of an agreed "road map" that would address the IAEA's concerns in a set order.

Iran has denied IAEA and Western suspicions that it has embarked on any nuclear weapons work.

Amano had said before leaving for Tehran that, while he was going into the discussions with a positive mindset, his one-day visit was too short to carry out in-depth work such as inspections.

He was to hold another discussion late on Monday with Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi before leaving for his return flight to IAEA headquarters in Vienna.

His trip, hastily planned, was the fruit of talks last week at the IAEA between lower-ranking IAEA and Iranian officials.

The results of his talks will inevitably flow into the Baghdad discussions to take place on Wednesday between Jalili and representatives of the P5+1 -- comprising veto-wielding U.N. Security Council permanent members Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, plus Germany.

Iran wants to see Western sanctions targeting its vital oil and financial sectors eased. Although Iranian officials insist they are having no effect, foreign analysts, traders and international agencies affirm the contrary.

Those sanctions are programmed to be ratcheted up further in just over a month's time, when U.S. and EU measures aimed at blocking Iran's foreign oil sales come fully into effect.

The United Nations has also imposed its own set of sanctions on Iran in a series of resolutions that call for the Islamic republic to suspend all uranium enrichment -- something Tehran has repeatedly refused to do.

The specter of military action against Iran by the United States or its ally Israel -- the sole if undeclared nuclear weapons state in the Middle East -- looms should the P5+1 nuclear talks fail to make headway.