Iran’s promise to suspend uranium enrichment in the hope of allaying fears it wants to make a nuclear bomb is a positive step, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said yesterday. Mohamed ElBaradei told Britain’s BBC radio Iran’s government still had a lot of work to do, but added: “They need to build confidence and the suspension of uranium enrichment is a good step in the right direction.”

Tehran promised the European Union last week it would freeze enrichment by Nov. 22, in time for an IAEA board meeting on Thursday which is due to decide whether to report Iran to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions. “We are acting on a multiple front, but we still have a lot of work to do,” ElBaradei said. He praised Iran’s cooperation with the IAEA, saying that so far, the agency had been able to visit all the facilities it wanted to. “I would like Iran to continue to demonstrate maximum transparency. The more transparency they show, the more confidence we can build and the more assurance we can provide for the international community.” ElBaradei said he had urged Iran to go further and allow IAEA inspectors to visit facilities so far closed to them and which they suspected may be linked to nuclear weapons programmes. “So far we have been successful,” he said.

The United States has led calls for Iran to face sanctions, accusing the oil-rich Islamic Republic of trying to develop atomic weapons behind the veil of a civilian nuclear programme. Iran denies the charges and says all it wants to do is generate electricity. ElBaradei said Iran was facing a lot of scepticism, particularly from the United States, but said his agency had to continue working on the basis of fact. “I’m not ready to jump to conclusions and say this is a weapons programme unless I see a diversion of nuclear material to such a programme or I see clear-cut proof that this is a weapons programme,” he said.