UN finds more nuclear evidence in Iran

UN inspectors in Iran have discovered more nuclear experiments not previously disclosed by Tehran, the Washington Post reported yesterday, citing sources familiar with an account inspectors were expected to submit to the UN this week.

According to the newspaper, the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) found that Iran produced and experimented with polonium, an element useful in initiating the chain reaction that produces a nuclear explosion.

In the article from Tehran, the newspaper said Iran acknowledged the experiments but offered an explanation involving another of polonium's other possible uses, which include power generation.

Experts said research on polonium would occur early in a weapons program, the Post reported.

"It's quite clear they were trying to make an explosive device," one person with knowledge of the polonium discovery was quoted as saying.

"But they hadn't gotten far enough. No one will find a smoking gun, because they weren't able to make a gun," the source said.

Last week, diplomats on the nuclear agency's governing board and a US official said that UN inspectors in Iran had discovered components which were usable in advanced centrifuges for extracting enriched uranium.

Tehran maintains that it had no such equipment and denies that it had any intention of developing a nuclear weapons program.