Iran turns down IAEA new offer

IRAN: Iran again turned down an offer by the UN nuclear watchdog requiring the country to ship its enriched uranium to neighboring Turkey, the satellite Press TV reported on Sunday.

Tehran said such an offer had already been made by the chief of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and was rejected by Iran then.

"This proposal which was made by the chief of IAEA long time ago was rejected by Iranian authorities at the time," the report quoted an unnamed source as saying.

"It seems the IAEA chief is trying to take advantage of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's (forthcoming) visit to Turkey to gain media coverage on a closed issue," the source said on condition of anonymity.

In his new offer, the IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei said Saturday that Iran's enriched uranium could be transferred to Turkey until Russia supplies Tehran with high-enriched uranium.

Tehran, Monday, Xinhua