IAEA chief arrives in Iran for nuclear talks

The head of the U.N. nuclear agency arrived in Iran on Saturday for talks on a timetable for inspectors to visit a newly disclosed nuclear enrichment plant, state radio reported.

"Mohamed Elbaradei arrived in Iran to meet Iranian officials. He will discuss Iran's nuclear program with the officials," it said.

The head of the U.N. atomic watchdog arrived in Tehran on Saturday to meet Iranian atomic officials after Washington and its allies demanded quick progress in revived talks on Iran's controversial nuclear programme.

Mohamed ElBaradei, whose mission follows hot on the heels of the disclosure that Iran is building a new nuclear plant, is expected to meet Ali Akbar Salehi, head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization (IAEO), and other officials on Sunday, an official with the atomic body said.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief would leave the country late on Sunday or early Monday, the Iranian official said.

Mounting pressure

ElBaradei's visit comes amid mounting pressure after U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday demanded swift and "constructive" action from Iran following the crucial nuclear talks in Geneva between six world powers and Tehran.

Obama warned that his patience for dialogue was limited.

But he conceded that the Geneva meeting, which included the highest-level direct talks between the United States and Iran in three decades, marked a "constructive" start to defusing the nuclear standoff.

Iran agreed with six powers in Geneva on Thursday to allow IAEA inspectors unfettered access to the enrichment plant near the Shiite holy city of Qom.

Iran's solid logic, innovation and resistance were the key elements on which Tehran presented its argument

Iran newspaper

Gaining the "upper hand"

Iranian newspapers on Saturday praised Tehran for gaining the "upper hand" during the Geneva talks.

"Iran's solid logic, innovation and resistance were the key elements on which Tehran presented its argument," said the government-run Iran newspaper.

After the talks, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said Iran had agreed to cooperate "fully and immediately" over its second uranium enrichment facility near the holy city of Qom.

The six world powers -- Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States -- now expect IAEA inspections of the plant to be allowed within two weeks, he added.

A senior U.S. administration official said ElBaradei's visit would deal with arrangements for inspections.

Iran also tentatively agreed at the Geneva talks to ship some of its stocks of low enriched uranium abroad for reprocessing into fuel for an internationally supervised research reactor in Tehran.

"If Iran agrees to send most of its stockpile of LEU (low enriched uranium) to Russia to be further enriched to provide this fuel, it will reduce that source of anxiety," a U.S. official who declined to be named told journalists.

Experts estimated that in recent months, Iran had exceeded the amount of low energy uranium needed to produce enough higher grade uranium to make a bomb, he explained.

If Iran agrees to send most of its stockpile of LEU to Russia to be further enriched to provide this fuel, it will reduce that source of anxiety

Unnamed US official