Vienna  - International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed ElBaradei called on Syria Thursday to allow further inspections of the country's alleged nuclear programme.

In his statement before the IAEA board of governors, ElBaradei also urged Iran to clarify open questions on past studies that were possibly related to the development of nuclear weapons.

Vienna - Scenarios in which Iran would use its uranium enrichment programme to resume alleged weapons work are "plausible," the United States' representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Thursday in Vienna.

As Iran had a history of lack of cooperation with the IAEA, member states should worry about the possibility that the country would either one day kick out agency inspectors and use its enrichment facility to make fuel for a bomb, rather than for its nuclear reactor, Ambassador Gregory Schulte told the IAEA board.

Alternatively, it might do the same at a secret facility, he added.

According to US intelligence estimates, Iran stopped military nuclear projects in 2004, but stands ready to resume them.

Tehran - Iran harshly condemned Thursday the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, ISNA news agency reported.

Tehran - Iran has summoned the British ambassador to Tehran over remarks by Foreign Minister David Miliband who had called on the Persian Gulf Arab sheikhdoms to increase pressure on Iran with regards to its nuclear ambitions, ISNA news agency reported Thursday.
The foreign ministry told Ambassador Geoffrey Adams that Milband's remarks on Monday were hostile, provoking and aimed at distorting Iran's brotherly relations with the regional countries and demanded an immediate halt to what it called London's interfering policies.

Washington  - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice confirmed on Wednesday that Washington was looking to establish a diplomatic post in Iran but concluded that the decision should be left to the next president.

"At this late moment, I think it is probably better that this decision be left to the next administration," Rice said, less than two months ahead of president-elect Barack Obama's inauguration.

Tehran  - Iran is now operating more than 5,000 centrifuges for enriching uranium as it continues to move forward on developing a nuclear capability in defiance of the United Nations, the country's nuclear chief said Wednesday.

"Currently we have more than 5,000 centrifuges operating," Gholam- Reza Aqazadeh, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation said, according to the official IRNA news agency.

The United States and its allies suspect Iran is seeking the ability to build nuclear weapons, and the UN Security Council has adopted three resolutions containing limited sanctions and demanding Tehran suspend uranium enrichment.