UN inspectors visit Iran's nuclear sites

TEHRAN: Iran said on Sunday that UN nuclear watchdog inspectors have visited its key atomic facilities, as the UN Security Council mulls sanctions against Iran, the state news agency IRNA reported.

Quoting an informed source, IRNA said the International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors, who arrived on Friday, have visited uranium conversion and enrichment facilities in Isfahan and Natanz, central Iran.

They have also visited a second cascade of uranium-enriching centrifuges launched at the Natanz plant last month.
 
"These inspections were intended for the IAEA chief Mohammed ElBaradei's report for the next board of governors' meeting" in late November, the source said.

Iran says it only wants to enrich uranium to make nuclear fuel, but the West fears the Islamic republic might use the process to secretly develop atomic weapons.

The UN Security Council's permanent members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- plus Germany have been discussing a draft resolution on sanctions against Iran after it refused to suspend enrichment in return for a package of incentives offered by world powers.