IAEA to send nuclear inspectors to Iran

Acting on a request from Iran, the International Atomic Energy Agency said today that it will send a team to Tehran as soon as possible to work jointly on a plan meant to clear up suspicions about the Islamic republic's nuclear activities.

The invitation, conveyed yesterday by a senior Iranian envoy and made public today by the agency, was portrayed by some diplomats as a positive step in IAEA attempts to learn more about past activities that could point toward a weapons program. But the US said it was sceptical.

"I don't think Iran's track record is particularly noteworthy or particularly likely to give me or anyone else confidence that anything will come of these discussion," State Department spokesman Tom Casey said in Washington.

The invitation was linked to a recent Iranian offer to stop stonewalling the agency in its probe of more than two decades of Iranian nuclear activities - clandestine until 2002 when they were revealed by a dissident group.

If followed through, it could generate international good will that might blunt the threat of new UN sanctions and increase pressure on the US and its closest allies to compromise on their insistence for a full enrichment freeze.