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Russia and China joined the United States and its European allies on Friday in formally rebuking Iran over its nuclear program at a meeting of the United Nations nuclear technology watchdog. By a 25-to-3 vote, with seven abstentions or absences, the board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, adopted a German-drafted resolution condemning Iran's nuclear program. The measure also called on Tehran to halt enrichment of uranium, resolve lingering questions about its past nuclear activities, open its nuclear facilities to further inspection and provide assurances it is not operating secret atomic research and development sites.

Arab countries are stepping up efforts to pry open Israel's nuclear program, according to letters by diplomats accompanying a new report by the International Atomic Energy Agency. The documents obtained by The Times reveal a behind-the-scenes battle between the West and developing countries over whether to place the Israeli nuclear program under international controls, as demanded by an Arab-sponsored resolution adopted by the IAEA's 151 member states last year. Israel said then that it would not comply "in any way" with the resolution.

International arms control inspectors say sensitive equipment that could be used to extract plutonium for an atomic bomb has gone missing from a Tehran laboratory months after the apparatus was disclosed to a United Nations watchdog agency, according to an official report released Monday. The report is expected to feed suspicions in the West that Iran is attempting to hide the nature and scope of its nuclear program. On the other hand, Iran agreed in May to allow inspectors greater surveillance and access to the area where it is producing 20% enriched uranium meant for a Tehran medical reactor, clearing up one of the points of contention between the Islamic Republic and the International Atomic Energy Agency.

WASHINGTON - Iran has finished installing centrifuges at a fortified underground facility and can sharply increase production of enriched uranium to a purity that can be quickly improved to weapons grade, the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency said Friday in a report likely to stir new concern in the West about Tehran's nuclear ambitions. According to the report by the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran has prepared 700 more centrifuges at the Fordow facility for operation since August, doubling the plant's enrichment capacity.

WASHINGTON - The head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency acknowledged Thursday that inspectors had made no progress in a yearlong effort to determine whether Iran had conducted research needed to build an atomic bomb. Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency are expected to meet Iranian officials in Tehran next week to seek a resumption of their inquiry on the possible military dimensions of Iran's nuclear program. "We have intensified our dialogue with Iran this year, but no concrete results have been made yet," Yukiya Amano, head of the IAEA, told the nonpartisan Council on Foreign Relations.

United Nations nuclear inspectors have concluded that Iran has acquired the technical means to design a nuclear weapon and would require about six months to enrich uranium to the quality needed for a bomb if it decided to do so, according to officials familiar with the evidence. Evidence of advances in Iran's research is expected to emerge this week in a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.'s Vienna-based nuclear watchdog. The IAEA report provides no "smoking gun" proof that Iran's government intends to build a nuclear weapon, said a European diplomat.

Over the objections of Russia and other countries, the European Union pushed the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency Friday to approve a measure that would compel the Security Council to examine Iran's controversial nuclear program and consider punitive action. The measure would require the International Atomic Energy Agency to report Iran to the Security Council for its failure to comply with international nuclear treaties. It demands a complete halt of those activities.

The international community tentatively decided late Wednesday to halt financial support for a controversial nuclear reactor in Iran that could be used to help produce plutonium for atomic bombs, but to continue to fund seven other Iranian civilian nuclear projects. The decision to stop funding was a victory for Western countries that suspect Iran's ultimate goal in its nuclear program is to build a bomb.