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                 IAEA, Iran Discuss Inspection of Nuclear Sites

   by VOA News

   The head of the U.N. nuclear agency is holding talks in Tehran with
   senior Iranian officials to try to reach an agreement on inspecting
   Iranian facilities suspected of being used for a covert nuclear weapons
   program.
   International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukio Amano met the head of
   Iran's nuclear energy organization Fereydoon Abbasi-Davani on Monday,
   shortly after arriving in the Iranian capital for a one-day visit.
   Amano was due to meet the top Iranian nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili
   and Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi later in the day.
   It is Amano's first trip to Iran since taking office at the U.N.
   nuclear agency in 2009. Before leaving Vienna, he said he hoped to
   build on "good progress" made by lower-level IAEA and Iranian officials
   in the Austrian capital last week. But Amano also said "nothing is
   certain" about the prospects for an agreement on nuclear inspections.
   ''Iran has rejected repeated IAEA requests to inspect its Parchin
   military complex in response to Western allegations of atomic weapons
   research at the site. Tehran says the complex houses only conventional
   weapons and insists the Iranian nuclear program is peaceful.
   Some diplomats say Iran may offer concessions to Amano to strengthen
   its negotiating position in separate nuclear talks with six world
   powers in Baghdad on Wednesday. The world powers include the five
   permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany - a group
   that has been trying to assess the possible military capability of
   Iran's nuclear sites.
   Israel sees a nuclear-armed Iran as a threat to its existence and
   refuses to rule out military action against the Iranian nuclear
   program.
   During a visit to Prague Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
   Netanyahu expressed concern about the Baghdad talks, saying Iran may
   use them to buy time to advance its weapons ambitions.
   The United States also has refused to rule out a strike on Iran to
   prevent it from obtaining nuclear weapons.

   Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
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