Closely-Watched Iran, IAEA Talks Resume

Closely-watched talks between Iran and the U.N. nuclear agency went into their scheduled final day on Tuesday, with Tehran's envoy quoted as saying that so far the meeting had been "good."

The official news agency IRNA quoted Iranian Ambassador Ali Asghar Soltanieh as saying as he went into the negotiations in Vienna that the first day had been "good" and "constructive."

On Monday, International Atomic Energy Agency chief inspector Hermann Nackaerts had said he wanted to press Iran in the talks here for "access to people, documents, information and sites" in its contested nuclear program.

In particular Nackaerts wants Iran to address claims made in an extensive IAEA report in November that at least until 2003, and possibly since, there were activities which could only conceivably be aimed at developing a nuclear bomb.

He also wants access to the Parchin military base near Tehran where the IAEA report said Iran had conducted explosives tests in a metal container.

In two visits to Tehran in January and February, branded a "failure" by Washington, the IAEA said Iran denied Nackaerts access to Parchin and dismissed out of hand the claims made in the report as based on forgeries.

Western countries accuse Iran of removing evidence at Parchin. Soltanieh said in March that any allegations of "sanitization" of the site were "a childish (and) ridiculous story."

Iran and the P5+1 -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States plus Germany -- held their first talks in 15 months in Istanbul in mid-April, and agreed to more in-depth discussions in Baghdad on May 23.

It was unclear what time the meeting in Vienna would end.