Because the allegations concerned activities that were not directly of a nuclear nature and therefore "outside the statutory mandate of the IAEA," the International Atomic Energy Agency's "professionalism, credibility and reputation" were on the line, Ambassador Ali Asghar Soltanieh told AFP.

He argued that the allegations were based on fake intelligence which could easily have been put together "by any undergraduate", and added that they were "just creating difficulties for the agency and poisoning the cooperative environment".

Soltanieh denied assertions by western diplomats that he had lost his temper during a key IAEA briefing on Monday, when documentation was presented suggesting that Iran had continued nuclear weapons work beyond the 2003 date cited in a recent US intelligence report.

"I was not angry," he said, adding that he had merely warned other member states that the agency was in danger of letting itself by manipulated by certain countries.

In a report published Friday, the IAEA found that while Tehran had made some progress in divulging information about some of its nuclear activities in the past, it was "not yet in a position to determine the full nature of Iran's nuclear programme".

That was primarily because Tehran had refused outright to address allegations it was involved in weaponisation studies, including a uranium conversion project, high explosives testing, and the design of a missile re-entry vehicle.

The IAEA insisted the alleged studies were "a matter of serious concern and critical to an assessment of a possible military dimension to Iran's nuclear programme."

And diplomats who attended Monday's briefing said the IAEA's head of safeguards, Olli Heinonen, had presented detailed "serious and substantial" material underlining the agency's concerns.

"What we saw was the IAEA secretariat piecing together a worrying mosaic of information, involving clandestine uranium enrichment, high explosives testing, work on modifying a missile re-entry vehicle and procurement of dual-use material," said one western diplomat on condition of anonymity.

Among the material presented was "an Iranian-made video that made clear that Iran did not just do studies on these topics, but that actual work was being done on weaponisation, including mock-ups of the re-entry vehicle," the diplomat said.

"The range of activities we saw ... strongly suggests a military dimension to Iran's nuclear activities," the diplomat said.

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