"The suspension is holding," said a diplomat close to the International Atomic Energy Agency, as IAEA inspectors this week visited an underground uranium enrichment plant in Natanz and a uranium conversion facility in Isfahan.

The diplomat, speaking Saturday, said the inspectors were still in Iran and could make new discoveries before the IAEA's 35-nation board of governors opens its meeting at the agency's headquarters in Vienna but that it seemed "Iran wants to be a nice boy now" and meet its international agreements.

Iran has since November suspended uranium enrichment activities towards making fuel for civilian nuclear power plants but what could also be the explosive core of nuclear bombs.

This is a confidence-building measure for talks with the European Union that opened in December and focus on Tehran guaranteeing its nuclear program is peaceful in return for trade, security and technology benefits.

The IAEA deputy director general for safeguards Pierre Goldschmidt is to report to the agency's board next week on both the EU-related suspension and the IAEA's own over-two-year-old investigation of the Iranian program, with some diplomats saying his presentation may be critical of Iran for not cooperating with IAEA requests for access to sensitive sites and certain key nuclear officials.

This is a sensitive diplomatic matter since the EU wants the IAEA to take a "minimalist approach," avoiding a finger-pointing report that could alienate the Iranians and endanger the EU-Iran talks, while the United States does not want the agency to let up the pressure on Iran, diplomats said.

The IAEA is meanwhile examining centrifuge parts provided by Pakistan in order to determine whether traces of highly enriched uranium found in Iran had come from smuggled Pakistani equipment or had been made in Iran.

But the diplomat said the IAEA has not finished tests on matching the Pakistani parts to see if the contamination on them corresponds to what Iran imported and would not have these results in time for the board meeting.

One result, however, is all but certain at next week's board meeting - the re-election of Mohamed ElBaradei as IAEA chief after a dramatic US turnaround.

The United States on Thursday reversed its opposition to the former Egyptian diplomat and said it was ready to accept a third term for him despite past policy disagreements over both Iraq's and Iran's nuclear programs.

Washington had resisted a new four-year term for ElBaradei, 62, who has run the agency since 1997, saying two terms was enough for anyone running an international agency.

But diplomats said the real reason was that ElBaradei had provoked the ire of Washington for questioning US intelligence that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction under now deposed dictator Saddam Hussein and for not being tough enough on Iran.

The United States had however no backing from other members on the agency's board for denying a third term to ElBaradei, who is widely respected as a tireless and fair campaigner for non-proliferation, diplomats said.

Still, the United States wants help for tougher enforcement of international nuclear safeguards and is proposing the creation of a special committee to crack down on violations of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in countries such as Iran.

ElBaradei has switched from opposing the idea to now backing this text, which has been "thoroughly rewritten" in recent months, a Western diplomat close to the IAEA said.

Another issue at the meeting will be Saudi Arabia, which has agreed to sign a comprehensive NPT safeguards agreement but also wants to sign a protocol that could severely limit IAEA inspections, diplomats said.

The EU was expected this weekend to make a so-called diplomatic demarche, both in Vienna and Riyadh, asking Saudi Arabia not to a sign the Small Quantities Protocol (SQP), to which it has the right, European diplomats told

Saudi Arabia, a key state in the tense Middle East, is not believed to be a direct proliferation threat, but diplomats are seeking to give the IAEA full powers in the region as it investigates Iran.

While diplomats agreed they would prefer full access to Saudi Arabia's nuclear facilities, one non-aligned official said the deal proposed would be for the country to sign the SQP but also make a commitment to allow inspections if asked to do so.

All rights reserved. � 2004 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.

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