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ShareTEHRAN: A team of UN inspectors were on Monday visiting Iran's controversial nuclear facilities ahead of a trip to the Islamic republic by International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed El Baradei, a senior official said.
The deputy head of Iran's atomic organisation, Mohammad Saidi, said the IAEA team were on a trip to a uranium conversion site at Isfahan and would later visit an enrichment facility at Natanz. The five IAEA inspectors arrived in Iran on Friday.
El Baradei's visit, due to begin on Wednesday, according to diplomats close to the agency, is his first to the country this year and comes amid growing international pressure on Tehran to suspend its uranium enrichment activities - seen in the West as a cover for weapons development.
It is not yet clear who El Baradei will meet in Tehran, and Iranian sources here said even the precise timing and content of the visit had yet to be finalised.
Quoted by the official news agency IRNA, hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also promised some "good nuclear news soon", but did not elaborate.
On March 29 the UNSC has called on Iran to suspend uranium enrichment to provide a watertight guarantee that its nuclear programme is peaceful, and asked El Baradei to report on Iranian compliance after 30 days.
Iran categorically rejects charges that it is seeking atomic weapons and has so far rejected the ultimatum. Tensions over Iran have been mounting, with explosive new reports in the US saying that President Bush is mulling military options to knock out the Islamic republic's nuclear programme.
