US offering 'forged' intelligence on bomb studies: Iran

Iran has charged that Washington provided forged intelligence to the UN nuclear watchdog claiming that Tehran studied how to make atomic bomb, as world powers pressured the Islamic republic to resume talks on its nuclear drive.

State news agency IRNA quoted a senior official today as saying that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had been given documents by Washington that lacked credibility.

"The government of the United States has not given authentic documents to the agency because it does not actually have any credible documents and all those documents are forged," Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Tehran's envoy to the IAEA said in a letter to the agency's chief Mohamed ElBaradei, IRNA reported.

"Considering that there are no authentic documents on these alleged studies, there is no credible evidence of link between such forged claims and Iran... This issue should be closed." In Washington a US official said on condition of anonymity: "These accusations are baseless. The IAEA itself accepted the material as credible."

State Department Spokesman Ian Kelly declined comment on the allegation. "We are still awaiting a meaningful response to the P5+1 offer from last April, and to our offer of engagement," he said.