IAEA Tests Tehran.

Talks about Iran's nuclear programme continue. The No. 2 official at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Olli Heinonen, arrived in Tehran on July 11 to test Iran's promise to answer questions about its nuclear agenda under the threat of stiffer sanctions. At the same time, the US is preparing for a new UNSC resolution imposing additional sanctions against Iran should Tehran continue to enrich uranium.

Iran's gesture of an "action plan" to address suspicions that its nuclear programme has military goals, combined with a slowdown in its uranium enrichment, have raised the hope of defusing a standoff with the big powers. But the US and EU allies wonder whether Iran's offer of transparency is more than a gambit designed to avert further sanctions against what Western powers suspect is a bomb-making programme in disguise.

Iran says it is refining uranium only to generate more electricity and allow it to export more of its oil. Heinonen went to Tehran at its invitation for two days of talks, where he was to get answers to the Vienna-based agency's questions.

The IAEA wanted explanations for traces of highly enriched - bomb-grade - uranium found on some equipment. It also wanted to know more about experiments with plutonium, the status of research into an advanced centrifuge able to enrich uranium three times as fast as the model Iran now uses and documents showing how to cast uranium metal for a bomb core.

After a meeting of its 35-nation governing body on July 9, the IAEA's Director-General Muhammad ElBaradei said he hoped Heinonen could "come back with at least a serious indication from Iran to move forward", adding, "To resolve these issues would be a major breakthrough".