The head of the UN nuclear watchdog agency told Congress "the jury is still out" on whether Iran was developing nuclear weapons.
"I don't have any specific proof," Mohammed ElBaradei, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told a Congressional panel on Wednesday, when he also urged US President George W. Bush to open a dialogue with Iran on its nuclear program.
"They are mulling it over," ElBaradei said after a 45-minute White House session with Bush and Condoleezza Rice, the president's national security assistant.
US intelligence agencies are convinced Iran is edging closer to producing nuclear weapons.
ElBaradei told members of Congress, however, that he did not have specific proof.
"I have to be certain," the UN official said.
ElBaradei said he was careful with statements about Iran's nuclear intentions. "This could make a difference between peace and war," he said.
At the White House, meanwhile, ElBaradei told reporters that Iran was cooperating fully with UN inspectors after barring inspections for two weeks. They are to resume on March 27.
Still, Bush expressed concern about Iran's program, ElBaradei said.
"My answer is that the jury is still out," ElBaradei said. "We would like to continue to work hard on inspecting Iran before we come to a conclusion."
After meeting with Bush, ElBaradei said he hoped he would have a more definitive assessment of Iran's nuclear activities by June, when he is due to give his next report to the IAEA Board of Governors.
Iran suspended inspections last weekend after the UN agency adopted a resolution deploring recent discoveries of uranium enrichment equipment and other suspicious activities that Iran had failed to reveal. Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Hasan Rowhani, had described the IAEA resolution as "unfair and deceitful."
Though ElBaradei called the two-week suspension "regrettable" and "a bad precedent," he said the inspection that was postponed was not time-sensitive and thus probably didn't offer Iran an opportunity to hide anything. And now, he said, Iran is "back on track."
UN inspectors are due to return to Iran on March 27.
"I think today Iran is cooperating fully," ElBaradei said. "I expect them to be fully cooperative, to be fully transparent, to provide all information in the most detailed manner. ... We need 100 percent cooperation."
Iran says its nuclear activities are designed to generate electricity. The Bush administration suspects Iran is developing nuclear weapons.
"There certainly is no reason why they need to have nuclear energy given all their vast oil and gas resources," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. "So we continue to have concerns about their behavior and about their nuclear program."
ElBaradei seemed to endorse Bush's recent call for a ban on allowing any additional countries to acquire the ability to enrich uranium or reprocess spent fuel for plutonium -- even if the stated intent is to build civilian nuclear power facilities.
"We believe there is enough supply in the world that we do not like to see many other countries developing reprocessing capability, enrichment capability, provided that we provide assurance of supply," ElBaradei said.
His White House visit came after Bush gave a speech at the National Defense University last month in which the president singled out the IAEA for criticism.
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