IRAN has rejected unprecedented pressure from the United Nations, the United States, Russia and the European Union to agree to a stricter regime of nuclear inspections in the face of mounting international concern that the country is trying to develop nuclear weapons.

It said yesterday that it would agree to a new inspection regime only in return for more nuclear technology, an offer that Western diplomats called unacceptable.

Mohamed ElBaradei, the Director-General of the UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), called on Iran to accept tighter inspections after he presented a report to the IAEA’s board of governors in Vienna outlining how Tehran had covered up the development of its nuclear programme.

The report claimed that Iran had not declared certain imported nuclear material, the facilities where it was being processed, or the way in which it had been processed. Under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Iran has to allow prearranged inspections to verify that its nuclear programme is solely for peaceful purposes.

Yesterday Dr ElBaradei called on Tehran to sign an additional protocol agreeing to unannounced inspections at a wider range of facilties. In addition, EU ministers meeting in Luxembourg demanded that Iran “urgently and unconditionally” co-operate with a tougher IAEA inspection regime and said that its continued failure to do so could jeopardise economic co-operation.

Igor Ivanov, the Russian Foreign Minister, urged Iran to agree to the inspections to remove any doubt that its nuclear programme was not strictly for peaceful purposes.Russia has assisted Iran’s nuclear programme despite repeated American protests.

Kenneth Brill, the US Ambassador to the UN in Vienna, said: “The board should speak with a very clear and firm voice in support of the agency’s work and the need for Iran to answer the questions raised.”

A senior Iranian delegate at the board meeting complained that Washington was putting undue pressure on the UN agency for political reasons, and said: “If the board comes up with a reasonable format in a reasonable language which could encourage our country, then it will be conducive to a final settlement of the issue.”

Tehran insisted that it would make concessions only if the West gave it peaceful nuclear technology. It insists that it needs a nuclear programme to provide energy as oil supplies dwindle.

The United States and other Western countries have ruled out such a deal. “That’s a non-starter,” Richard Boucher, the State Department spokesman, said. “It’s not a bargaining point. It’s a point of living up to international standards that everybody else feels comfortable living up to.”

America’s hard line reflects mounting concern that the Non-Proliferation Treaty is unravelling. It was established to stop the spread of nuclear weapons beyond the original declared nuclear powers of the US, China, Russia, the UK and France, but it has failed to prevent countries such as India and Pakistan from developing nuclear weapons. North Korea is also believed to have a reasonably advanced nuclear weapons programme.

If Tehran refuses to agree to a new inspections regime, it could eventually be formally declared by the IAEA to be in violation of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. It could then be referred to the UN Security Council, which could take a range of measures, including imposing economic sanctions.

• North Korea has been advising senior Iranian officials about how to keep their most secret nuclear research sites hidden from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), according to Western intelligence assessments (Michael Evans writes).

  Exchanges between the two countries included a visit to Pyongyang last month by two Iranian officials from the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran, have compounded the West’s fears that Tehran is bent on completing a nuclear bomb programme.

  Strong ties already exist between Tehran and Pyongyang in the design of ballistic missiles. With North Korea’s help, Iran is developing the Shebab 4 surface-to-surface missile, which has a 2,000km (1,250- mile) range and a 1,000kg (2,200lb) payload. Now Pyongyang is suspected of passing on details of evasive tactics used when facing routine atomic agency inspections.

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