http://news.google.com/news/en/us/world.htmlBRUSSELS: The US accused Iran yesterday of violating the global pact against atomic weapons by hiding its nuclear programme from theUN, while Tehran urged the nuclear watchdog not bow to US pressure.
"The fact of the matter is that Iran has been in non-compliance" with its obligations under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), US Secretary of State Colin Powell said after what he called a "very candid discussion" with his European Union counterparts.
Powell also criticised a draft resolution circulated by France, Germany and Britain before the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors meets tomorrow to discuss an IAEA report on Iran's 18-year concealment of the full extent of its nuclear programme.
"We have some reservations about the resolution drafted ... and we'll be in discussion with our EU colleagues and other members of the IAEA as to whether or not the resolution is strong enough to convey to the world the difficulties we've had with Iran over the years," Powell said.
However, he said Iran appeared to be moving in the right direction by co-operating with the IAEA.
The US says Iran has a secret weapons programme and wants the 35-nation IAEA board to declare the Islamic republic in "non-compliance" and report it to the Security Council, which has the power to impose sanctions.
Iran denies wanting an atomic bomb and urged the IAEA board not to give in to pressure from Washington.
"The members of the board should not allow a country to impose its views on them and should act independently," Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said.
"America should abandon such useless pressures and stop imposing its ideas on the agency," he said in a statement faxed to Reuters in Tehran.
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