The head of the UN nuclear agency is in Iran for talks on a timetable for inspectors to visit a newly disclosed unfinished nuclear enrichment plant.
A senior Iranian nuclear official said Mohamed ElBaradei would discuss plans to allow International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors to visit the site, as demanded by world powers.
He said Mr ElBaradei would not visit any nuclear site.
Iran agreed with six powers in Geneva on Thursday to allow IAEA inspectors unfettered access to the plant, near the Shia holy city of Qom, but did not set a time frame.
The West suspects the Islamic state is seeking to develop nuclear weapons. Iran insists it needs the nuclear technology to generate power to meet booming domestic demand.
Western officials said Iran had agreed ‘in principle’ on Thursday to ship out most of its enriched uranium for reprocessing in Russia and France. It would then be returned to power a Tehran reactor that makes medical isotopes.
Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation said in a statement that Mr ElBaradei's visit was ‘not related to the Geneva meeting’ but that there would be discussions on continued cooperation, particularly with regard to fuel for the Tehran reactor.
The talks in Geneva ended without agreement on the idea of ‘freeze for freeze’ - a suspension of further enrichment in return for a halt to additional UN sanctions against Iran.
The United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany all took part. Russia and China, major trade partners of Iran, have long opposed harsh sanctions against Iran.
