International Atomic Energy Agency

Talks to end North Korea's nuclear arms program veered away Thursday from setting a deadline for the next phase of disarmament but settled on a set of tasks the United States said could be carried out this year. The International Atomic Energy Agency said this week that North Korea had closed five main nuclear facilities, completing the first stage of a disarmament deal reached in February.

Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency have agreed on a timetable for Tehran to respond to questions about its nuclear activities, both sides said Tuesday. The agreement was announced at the end of two days of talks in Tehran. There was no elaboration on the time frame. But the agreement was expected to provide for easier inspection of facilities as well as to urge Tehran to provide detailed answers on remaining questions about its activities.

The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency said he had not seen "any concrete evidence" that Iran has a secret nuclear weapons program underway. "We have seen in the past that certain procurements have not been reported to us, certain experiments," Mohamed ElBaradei of the International Atomic Energy Agency told CNN.

The head of the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency said Monday that the inquiry into Iran's nuclear case was not closed, as the country's president proclaimed to the United Nations last month, and called it regrettable that Iran continued to enrich uranium despite the Security Council's demand to stop the process.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao urged Iran to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency and show flexibility over its nuclear program during a meeting with Iranian First Vice President Parviz Davoudi in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, New China News Agency said. "Wen said peaceful negotiation would be the best way to resolve the nuclear issue and he hoped that Iran could further demonstrate its flexibility," the official agency quoted a Foreign Ministry statement as saying.

The U.N.'s nuclear watchdog is expected to report this week that Iran has mostly cooperated with an investigation of its nuclear program's murky past, but that key questions remain unanswered, diplomats say. The European Union's nuclear negotiator, Javier Solana, is likely to confirm this month that Iran has not suspended uranium enrichment as demanded by the Security Council, opening the door to tougher sanctions.

The chief of the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency said Thursday that he hoped to have answers by year's end about how Iran acquired black-market nuclear technology and admonished Iranian officials to do more to allay fears that their nation is building an atomic bomb.

Global criticism rained down on Iran on Tuesday after it broke seals set by the International Atomic Energy Agency on a nuclear enrichment facility in Natanz, ending a two-year freeze on activities that Western leaders fear could lead to the enrichment of uranium to build nuclear weapons. In response, European ministers scheduled an urgent meeting for Thursday to determine whether to recommend that Iran face proceedings before the U.N. Security Council that could result in economic sanctions.

Russia wants the International Atomic Energy Agency to hold off on a formal referral of Iran to the United Nations Security Council, a move that could lead to sanctions, European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said Wednesday. Solana, speaking to reporters in Washington, said he believed Russia wanted to use a planned meeting with the Iranians next month to seek a compromise in the dispute over the Islamic nation's resumption of research on the nuclear fuel cycle.

As Western governments reaffirmed their will to report Iran and its nuclear program to the U.N. Security Council, Tehran lashed back Tuesday with a warning that such a move would mean "diplomacy is over." Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, speaking on Iranian television, said his country would feel free to resume nuclear-related work and would rebuff U.N. inspections if the board of the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency put the Iran case before the council.