UN nuclear watchdog to resume Iran talks

VIENNA - The United Nations nuclear watchdog confirmed on Saturday it will resume talks with Iran in mid-May, more than two months after the last meeting over concerns about the Islamic state's atomic activities ended in failure. ?

Gill Tudor, spokeswoman for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said the meeting would take place on May 14-15 at the Iranian diplomatic mission in Vienna. ?

"The purpose is to continue the negotiations started early this year," Tudor said in an email. ?

She was commenting on a report on Friday by the official Iranian news agency IRNA, which quoted Iran's envoy to the IAEA Ali Asghar Soltanieh as saying talks would resume. ?

Washington and its allies believe Tehran is working on developing nuclear bombs. ?

Tehran insists its activities have only civilian aims and has refused to stop enriching uranium, despite a slew of sanctions.

The IAEA last year issued a report detailing alleged Iranian research and development activities that were relevant to nuclear weapons, lending independent weight to Western suspicions. ? ?

The IAEA wants Iran to address the questions raised in the report. Iran has dismissed Western allegations as fabricated. ?

Soltanieh told IRNA Tehran's decision to resume talks "shows the peaceful nature of all of its nuclear activities, while showing that claims against Iran are baseless." ?

Western diplomats said last week Tehran still appeared to be stonewalling over the body's most pressing demand to let its inspectors visit a key military site. ?

Iran has also restarted negotiations with six world powers over its nuclear programme and the sides have agreed to meet again in Baghdad on May 23. ? ?

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said on Monday Iran was optimistic that the talks with United States, Russia, China, Germany, France and Britain would make progress.