Defiant Iran tells IAEA ... Remove nuke monitoring equipment

TEHRAN: Iran has told the International Atomic Energy Agency to remove some surveillance equipment from its nuclear facilities by mid-February, a defiant response to an IAEA vote reporting Tehran to the U.N. Security Council.

After Saturday's IAEA decision, driven by concerns Iran may be secretly trying to build atomic bombs, Tehran announced it would stop implementing a protocol giving the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency increased inspection powers in the country.

"From the date of this letter, all voluntarily suspended, non-legally binding measures including the provisions of the Additional Protocol, and even beyond that, will be suspended," according to an Iranian government letter to the IAEA released by the U.N. nuclear watchdog group on Monday.

"All Agency containment and surveillance measures which were in place beyond the Agency's normal safeguards measures should be removed by mid-February 2006," the Feb. 5 letter added.

The letter to the IAEA Secretariat said Iran would limit future cooperation with U.N. inspectors to its basic obligations under the 1970 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Iranian officials have said they want the IAEA to remove some surveillance cameras from some nuclear sites and will no longer grant inspectors access to military facilities.

Earlier on Monday Iranian chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani announced IAEA inspectors would be arriving in Iran shortly to oversee the resumption of uranium enrichment - a process that can be used to make bomb-grade material.

"In a letter to the agency (IAEA) we announced the date (for resuming enrichment) and the inspectors will come to Iran for it in the next few days," Larijani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, told reporters.

He did not specify a date for starting enrichment.

EU officials have warned that Iran's enrichment resumption after a freeze of over two years, and curbing of inspections in retaliation for the vote, will exacerbate its nuclear case and heighten the prospect of U.N. sanctions against Tehran. Tehran, Tuesday, Reuters