UN nuclear watchdog chief Yukiya Amano suggested before he took office last year that he was "solidly in the US court" on key issues including Iran, US diplomatic cables cited by the Guardian newspaper said. The report may worsen tension between Amano, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and Iran at a sensitive time in wider diplomatic efforts to resolve a dispute over the Islamic state's nuclear programme.
Talks between Iran and six big powers - the United States, France, Russia, Britain, China and Germany - are due to resume next week in Geneva in the first such meeting in more than year. Western powers suspect Iran of seeking to develop nuclear bombs behind the front of a declared civilian nuclear energy programme, an accusation Tehran rejects. A European diplomat predicted that Tehran's envoy would raise the issue of the leaked US cables at a meeting of the IAEA's 35-nation governing board starting on Thursday, which is due to discuss its latest report on Iran's nuclear activities.