WASHINGTON’S concern that Iran is secretly building weapons of mass destruction grew at the weekend after comments made by the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, who was here yesterday to assess its nuclear energy programme.

At a press conference at the end of his two-day trip, Mohamed Elbaradei described the site he visited in Natanz as a “centrifuge uranium-enrichment facility which was still under construction”, later remarking on how “comprehensive and sophisticated” it was. Washington believes that Iran is well on its way to developing a nuclear weapons programme. Now it appears to be convinced that Iran has acquired the expertise and technology to make substantial progress in uranium enrichment, enough to start developing weapons-grade material.

After Mr Elbaradei’s comments, the State Department said: “Whatever the Iranians showed him about their hitherto clandestine uranium-enrichment programme, it is akin to a midnight conversation, disclosed only after the facility’s existence was revealed by an Iranian opposition group.” Tehran had a “nuclear programme based on deception and bad faith, and an ambitious rush to develop a nuclear fuel cycle, whose true purpose can only be to produce fissile material for its nuclear weapons programme.”

Natanz is one of the sites highlighted last year by an opposition group called the National Council of Resistance of Iran. It produced satellite images that it said showed enrichment facilities and heavy-water production.

Iran has always said its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes. It says it needs to develop nuclear energy to meet the increasing demands for electricity of its 65 million people.

Mr Elbaradei had planned to visit a heavy-water plant in Araq and a conversion plant in Isfahan, but his trip was curtailed because of a shortage of time. One of his key objectives was to get Iran to sign an additional protocol, allowing snap inspections of both declared and undeclared nuclear sites, but that was refused. Instead, he was promised advance notice on any new nuclear sites Iran intends to build.

“I made it clear that with Iran developing a sophisticated fuel-cycle programme, it is important for the agency to have as much authority, as much information, as possible,” Mr Elbaradei said. “I was assured that this issue will be under active consideration by the Iranian Government, and this is an issue I will continue to discuss.”

• Tokyo: The United States is pushing for the creation of a multilateral forum to persuade North Korea to abandon its suspected nuclear weapons programme in return for promises of humanitarian aid (Richard Lloyd Parry writes). The proposed “Five Plus Five” group would bring together North and South Korea, Japan, Australia, the EU and the five permanent members of the Security Council.

  Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, discussed the idea over the weekend in Tokyo where he met Junichiro Koizumi, the Japanese Prime Minister. He will take up the theme today in Beijing in meetings with Chinese leaders.

  General Powell said over the weekend. “If more nations in the region and the international community were involved, then the obligations on North Korea would be stronger and the consequences of failure would be greater.”

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