Iranian negotiator to meet top UN representative

Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, will meet the head of the UN nuclear watchdog agency this week, an Iranian nuclear official said today.

It comes as part of a push for a new round of talks over Tehran's disputed nuclear programme.

Larijani will meet Mohamed ElBaradei, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, Austria, on Friday, according to the deputy head of Iran's atomic energy organisation, Mohammad Saeedi.

In Vienna, the IAEA declined to comment.

Earlier this month, Iran abruptly cancelled talks with ElBaradei, dashing hopes that Tehran is ready to end its secrecy about past suspicious nuclear activities.

Saeedi said the meeting with ElBaradei will come a day ahead of Larijani's talks with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana in Lisbon, Portugal, on Saturday.

Larijani's trip to Austria and Spain is seen as an effort to find a way to bridge the impasse over Iran's rejection of UN Security Council demands that it suspend uranium enrichment despite two rounds of punitive UN sanctions.

The enrichment process can produce fuel for civilian energy or fissile material for a bomb, depending on the level of enrichment.

The United States and some of its allies fear Iran is using its civilian nuclear programme as a cover to produce atomic weapons.

Iran denies the charge, saying its nuclear programme is geared towards generating electricity.

Iran says it is now too late to stop its nuclear programme because it has already achieved proficiency in the cycle of nuclear fuel - from extracting uranium ore to enriching it.

Tehran has vowed never to give up its right under the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty to enrich uranium and produce nuclear fuel.