Iran called on Sunday for the UN's atomic watchdog to finish a 13-month probe of its nuclear programme and take the Islamic republic off the agency's agenda.
Hassan Rohani, secretary-general of the Supreme National Security Council said it was time for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to confirm Iran's innocence of wrongdoing.
"The case concerning Iran's peaceful nuclear activities should be completely closed at the IAEA board of governors and removed from its agenda," state television quoted him as saying.
Rohani was speaking ahead of a meeting in Vienna of the IAEA board of governors, which will consider a new report by the agency showing Iran failed to report sensitive research involving advanced uranium enrichment centrifuges and potentially arms-related experiments.
He said the world must accept the Islamic Republic's right to develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.
The IAEA launched an intense inspection process after IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei visited Tehran in February last year.
In Vienna, diplomats on the IAEA's 35-nation board said they were working on a draft IAEA resolution on Iran circulated by the United States, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. They said it would require some fine-tuning but was something that could eventually be approved by the entire board.
"(The draft) is a text that is supposed to represent the views of many countries," a Western diplomat who follows the IAEA closely told Reuters about the resolution, adding that it combined "some criticism and some praise".
NUCLEAR POWER: The United States accuses Iran of running a secret nuclear arms programme in violation of the nuclear non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) and has called for the IAEA board to declare Tehran in "non-compliance" and report it to the UN Security Council. That could lead to sanctions.
Iran insists its network of nuclear facilities are geared to produce atomic power, not bombs.
"The world should accept Iran's membership of the atomic club," Rohani said in remarks to the annual meeting of Iran's Assembly of Experts - a body of senior clerics who elect and supervise the performance of Iran's Supreme Leader.
Rohani said Tehran's agreement late last year to sign the NPT Additional Protocol allowing inspectors to carry out more intrusive, snap checks of its nuclear facilities had thwarted US efforts to have Iran referred to the Security Council.
Mohsen Rezaie, secretary of the powerful Expediency Council arbitration body stressed that Iran would never abandon its right to develop peaceful nuclear technology, including efforts to master the full fuel cycle such as producing enriched uranium.
"The IAEA governors' board should be aware that any statement that limits Iran's right to obtain peaceful nuclear technology would create obstacles regarding Iran's continued co-operation with the agency," he warned in an interview with the ISNA students news agency.
Influential commentator Hossein Shariatmadari, editor of the hard-line Kayhan newspaper, also warned that a "hostile stance" by the IAEA board could lead Iran's parliament to refuse to ratify the Additional Protocol on snap nuclear inspections.
Diplomats agree the IAEA board is unlikely to send Iran's case to the Security Council, but they expect it to pass a resolution noting Tehran's failure to disclose activities such as research on advanced uranium centrifuge designs.
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