Iran pushes to blunt UN nuke agency powers

VIENNA – Under pressure from a U.N. nuclear agency probe, Iran is urging member countries to revamp the agency to dilute the power of nations that fear Iran may be trying to make atomic weapons.

The proposal, which criticizes "the limited, unbalanced and inequitable geographical representation" of the International Atomic Energy Agency board, is unlikely to be approved by the agency's board, which will hardly agree to weaken itself.

But it likely will give Iran and its supporters a platform at next month's general conference, attended by about 150 nations.

The bid is outlined in a document submitted for the conference and appears to be part of Tehran's broader efforts to weaken the IAEA's attempts to follow up on suspicions that it has experimented with components of a nuclear weapons program.

It calls for expanding the IAEA's board, which is now dominated by Western nations that strongly support the agency's probe of Iran's nuclear program.

Iran says such allegations are based on fabricated intelligence from the U.S., its Western allies and Israel. Tehran insists that all of its nuclear work is peaceful.

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On line: http://www.iaea.org/About/Policy/GC/GC56/GC56Documents/English/gc56-1-add2_en.pdf