Iranian UN referral near, Iran threatens nuke fuel work

VIENNA, Friday (AFP) - The UN atomic agency was set to send Iran to the UN Security Council over suspected atomic weapons work despite an Iranian threat to retaliate with industrial-level uranium enrichment.

Top Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani made the formal threat in a letter to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed ElBaradei.

The IAEA's 35-nation board of governors is expected to make the referral to the Security Council after three years of a still inconclusive investigation of an Iranian nuclear program the United States charges hides secret atomic weapons development.

In reaction to referral "the agency's monitoring (of the Iranian program) would extensively be limited and all the peaceful nuclear activities being under voluntary suspension would be resumed without any restriction," Larijani said in his letter.

The five permanent UN Security Council members have closed ranks at the emergency IAEA session in Vienna over a draft resolution to take Iran to the Council, which unlike the IAEA has enforcement powers.

The text is a compromise between a US desire for immediate Council action against Iran and Russia's demand for a month's time, until the next IAEA meeting in March, for more diplomacy.

Russia, a key trade partner of Iran, hopes Tehran can be convinced to respond to IAEA edicts for it to suspend all nuclear fuel work and cooperate fully with agency inspectors.

Russian ambassador Gregory Berdennikov said clearly "yes" when asked by reporters if he would vote for the draft text and China is expected to follow the Russian lead, a Western diplomat said.

The IAEA has called on Iran to suspend all nuclear fuel activities but Iran pressed ahead in January with preparations for uranium enrichment, after having in August resumed uranium conversion that makes the feedstock gas for enrichment.

Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed his country would "under no condition" abandon its disputed nuclear drive.

"The main thing in nuclear energy is enrichment," Ahmadinejad said.

ElBaradei told reporters that the showdown over Iran was "reaching a critical phase but it is not a crisis situation."

Iran's nuclear program "is not about an imminent threat. I should make that very clear."

In Washington, US National Intelligence Director John Negroponte said Iran probably does not yet have a nuclear weapon and does not have the necessary material for one.

But he said Iran was a nation "of highest concern" because of the danger of nuclear proliferation.