The UN's atomic watchdog made little progress on Iran's nuclear drive at a four-day meeting that ended here Thursday and Syria emerged as a new proliferation problem for the West.

Iran insisted after the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-member board meeting that it had answered all questions on its alleged nuclear weapons work and that it considered the controversy closed.

Syria declared itself ready to cooperate in an IAEA probe into allegations that it had a covert nuclear facility. But after the building was destroyed in an Israeli air strike in September, the West doubts that there is much left to inspect.

Iran came under heavy fire during meeting for failing to provide "substantive answers" to accusations that it had in the past sought a nuclear bomb.

But Iranian ambassador Ali Asghar Soltanieh insisted "We have given comprehensive responses, information and documents."

He told journalists: "We have done our job. The matter is over."

In his latest report on Iran, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei accused the Islamic republic of witholding key information the alleged nuclear weapons studies.

These include research, engineering work and tests carried out until a few years ago that may have had a military dimension.

Iran claims that the allegations are "baseless" and the intelligence used to back them are "forged" and "fabricated".

But the IAEA and Western countries insist Tehran must disprove the allegations rather than simply dismiss them.

Six meetings had taken place between IAEA inspectors and Iranian authorities before ElBaradei's previous report in March. There had been 70 hours of discussions and Iran turned over 200 pages of documents that disproved the allegations, Soltanieh said.

In addition, Iran had summarised its arguments in 30 pages of documents, including confidential information, that Soltanieh distributed to IAEA governors on Thursday, he said.

"We have answered every question. We have left no question answered," Soltanieh said.

Syria was the other major topic discussed. Diplomats said that Syrian atomic energy agency chief Ibrahim Othman had assured the IAEA of its cooperation at the closed door meeting.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad also said Damascus would cooperate with UN inspectors, who are travelling to the country on June 22-24.

"Syria invited the IAEA and will cooperate with it," Assad was quoted by the official SANA news agency as telling journalists during a visit to Kuwait.

According to Washington, a building in the remote site of Al-Kibar that was destroyed in an Israeli air attack last September, was a nuclear reactor close to becoming operational.

Diplomats said Syria had agreed to allow an IAEA inspection of the site.

But other suspect locations reportedly of interest were apparently off limits.

Othman "basically said that there are no other sites related to this military installation that was bombed," said a diplomat close to the IAEA.

Damascus insists the building was a disused military facility.

But it wiped the destroyed site clean of rubble late last year and erected a new building, making any possible investigation by the IAEA more difficult and raising suspicions about the real nature of the site.

"After the reactor was destroyed in September of last year, Syria went to great lengths to clean up the site and destroy the evidence of what existed at Al-Kibar, US ambassador Gregory Schulte told the board.

If the reactor was intended for a civil nuclear energy programme, "why go to such lengths to cover up its clandestine activities? What does Syria have to hide?, Schulte asked.

Syria's actions look set to become a full item at the IAEA's next board meeting in September, by which time IAEA inspectors will have visited the site.

earlier related report
Iran's Larijani warns IAEA against playing for time
Iran's powerful parliament speaker Ali Larijani warned the UN nuclear watchdog on Saturday against playing for time in a dispute over Iran's controversial atomic programme.

Iran came under heavy fire at a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency this week for failing to come clean on alleged nuclear weapons work.

"The agency has submitted an ambiguous report. They might be pursuing a 'One Thousand and One Nights' diplomacy that they are continually playing for time," the state IRNA news agency quoted Larijani as saying.

The former nuclear chief was alluding to a collection of folk tales, also known as the "Arabian Nights," in which the storyteller Scheherazade, doomed to be executed, begins a new story each night but delays the ending till the following night as a way of staying alive.

In his latest report on Iran, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei accused the Islamic republic of witholding key information on alleged nuclear weapons studies.

Iran has dismissed the allegations as "baseless", insisting it has provided comprehensive responses.

"We worked with the agency honestly and if they want to complicate the nuclear issue, they will make themselves some problems," Larijani warned. "We are not interested in prolonging the issue."

The IAEA report prompted Larijani to warn last Wednesday that Iran might review its relations with the UN watchdog, which has been probing Iran's nuclear programme for years.

But President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took a milder position on Monday, saying that Iran had no immediate plans to revise cooperation with the IAEA.

The United States and its European allies fear Iran wants to use the sensitive process of uranium enrichment to make an atomic weapon. Tehran insists its drive is entirely peaceful.