Nuclear deadline sets stage for showdown on Iran

VIENNA, Tuesday (AFP) Iran is almost certain not to heed a UN call for it to stop nuclear fuel work by next Saturday, setting the stage for a showdown on what the United States says is a secret Iranian drive to make atom bombs.

"New York is the key now," a senior European diplomat told AFP, referring to a United Nations summit September 14-16 where hardline Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is expected to present new Iranian proposals to assure the international community that his country is not making nuclear weapons.

Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani said last week that Iran would not give up its right under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to make nuclear fuel.

He spoke in Vienna ahead of a September 3 deadline, set by the UN watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for Iran to stop work on making atomic power reactor fuel that could also be used to make weapons.

IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei will be filing a report on that date to the IAEA's 35-nation board of governors on Iranian compliance.

The resumption this month of uranium conversion fuel work, which Iran had broken off last November to start talks with the European Union on guaranteeing its nuclear program is peaceful, has scuttled the negotiations and could lead to Iran being brought before the UN Security Council for possible sanctions when the IAEA board meets on September 19 in Vienna.

The United States had been pushing for an emergency board meeting soon after the report but that was opposed by Russia as well as non-aligned member states of the board, diplomats said. Russia wants to give bilateral talks at the summit in New York a chance, mainly planned meetings of Ahmadinejad with Russian President Vladimir Putin as well as UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, according to diplomats.