U.S. slams Iran over its nuclear ambitions

VIENNA, — The United States accused Iran yesterday of deceiving U.N. inspectors over its nuclear-weapons program, amid reports President Bush is leaning toward offering incentives to Iran to give up arms development.

Declaring some sites off-limits to U.N. arms inspectors, Iran said yesterday it fears that leaked information gathered by them could help those planning a strike on its military installations.

France, Britain and Germany, which criticized Iran for not honoring its pledge to freeze all activities that could be used to make weapons, are offering Iran economic and political incentives to terminate the most sensitive parts of its program. Iran has refused.

Backing the Europeans' approach would mark a significant shift in strategy, as Bush has been reluctant to consider incentives for Iran to avoid being seen as rewarding bad behavior.

Under the new strategy, the United States would not block Iranian attempts to start the process of joining the World Trade Organization, and would not try to stop European allies selling Iran parts for civilian aircraft, the officials said.

In exchange, the U.S. would insist that Iran abandon uranium enrichment, a demand Iran has so far rejected.

Some U.S. officials believe offering incentives would strengthen the international community's hand by providing a united front for punitive measures, such as U.N. sanctions, if the incentives did not work.

Jackie Sanders, chief U.S. delegate to the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, called a new agency report updating Iran's nuclear record a "startling list of Iranian attempts to hide and mislead and delay the work" of agency experts, and urged other countries to support a U.S. drive to have Iran referred to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions.

Iran's refusal to grant IAEA inspectors renewed access to the Parchin military site after an initial, severely restricted visit last month was one of the issues raised by the agency's review.

The United States says Iran may be testing high-explosive components for nuclear weapons, using an inert core of depleted uranium at Parchin as a dry run for a bomb that would use fissile material.

The IAEA says it has found no firm evidence that Iran's nuclear program is intended for anything other than peacefully generating electricity. The agency also has not been able to support U.S. assertions that nearly 20 years of covert nuclear programs discovered two years ago were aimed at making nuclear weapons.