Report: Iran withheld nuclear info
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Commercial satellite photo of a nuclear facility near Natanz, Iran
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VIENNA, Austria (Reuters) -- Iran failed to declare sensitive designs for uranium enrichment centrifuges to the U.N. nuclear watchdog, calling into question the Islamic republic's cooperation with the agency, diplomats told Reuters Thursday.
Several Western diplomats told the news agency on condition of anonymity that information from Libya and other countries had led to the discovery of the designs, which could be used to develop machines to produce weapons-grade material.
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) officials have expressed concerns about the existence of a global nuclear black market that has helped countries under embargo such as Iran, North Korea and Libya skirt international sanctions and obtain nuclear technology that could be used to make weapons.
Libya admitted in December that it had been seeking nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and invited U.S., British and U.N. experts to help it destroy its weapons of mass destruction facilities.
Since then, Tripoli has provided the Vienna-based IAEA with a wealth of detail about it nuclear weapons programme, including designs for nuclear warheads.
Washington has called on Iran to follow Libya's example by owning up to running atomic weapons programme and fully cooperating with IAEA inspectors. Iran insists that its nuclear programme is purely for peaceful purposes.
Western diplomats on the IAEA board have said that Iran does not volunteer information and is often slow in answering questions the IAEA inspectors ask it.
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