IRAN’S president declared yesterday his country would not retreat on its uranium enrichment activities.

India’s prime minister today said more time was needed for diplomacy to resolve the Iran nuclear crisis as the UN atomic watchdog prepared to meet on Tehran’s nuclear programme.

The UN atomic agency revealed today that Iran received black-market designs to encase weapons-grade uranium and diplomats said they appeared to be part of blueprints for a nuclear warhead.

North Korea may have enough weapons-grade plutonium to make up to half a dozen nuclear bombs, the head of the UN atomic watchdog agency said in another warning about the reclusive regime’s secretive nuclear program.

A senior Iranian official appeared to cast doubt today on Tehran’s latest commitment to a total suspension of nuclear activities capable of producing weapons-grade uranium, saying some centrifuges will continue operating.

Iran has suggested it may consider a complete suspension of nuclear enrichment, meeting a key demand set by most countries of the UN atomic watchdog agency.

Europe and the US agreed to moves to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions tonight, but divisions emerged with so-called non-aligned nations objecting to parts of the text.

Iran’s refusal to fully give up uranium enrichment – and banish suspicions it is interested in nuclear arms – set the stage for a confrontation at a key UN atomic watchdog agency meeting today.

Evidence gathered by the UN atomic agency suggests North Korea was the source of nearly two tons of uranium to Libya as part of attempts by Colonel Gaddafi to build nuclear warheads, diplomats said today.

LIBYA has agreed to open its nuclear activities to pervasive inspection by the UN atomic agency as early as next week, a key step toward honouring a promise to scrap its nuclear weapons programme.

Libya has agreed to throw open its nuclear activities to pervasive inspection by the UN atomic agency as early as next week.

Ahead of a key trip to Teheran by the chief of the UN atomic watchdog agency, an Iranian opposition group said it had evidence of a new secret site used by Teheran to test equipment for a nuclear weapons programme.

Iranian delegates walked out in protest today after the UN atomic agency gave them until the end of October to clear up suspicions about their nuclear aims.

The head of the UN atomic agency arrived in Iran today and is expected to urge the government to allow unfettered inspections of its nuclear sites.

Indirectly challenging a US argument for war on Iraq, the UN atomic agency said today that the discovery of parts from Baghdad’s original nuclear weapons programme appears to back its stance that the project was not reactivated.