Iran and The UN Nuclear Watchdog Will Hold Talks

Iran and The UN Nuclear Watchdog Will Hold Talks
VIENNA, AUSTRIA - JUNE 02 : Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Yukiya Amano speaks during a press conference after a meeting of the IAEA board of governors in Vienna, Austria on June 2, 2014. Yukiya Amano, called on Tehran to allow inspectors to monitor the activities in the Parchin nuclear plant, in the north of the country. (Photo by Hasan Tosun/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
VIENNA, AUSTRIA - JUNE 02 : Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Yukiya Amano speaks during a press conference after a meeting of the IAEA board of governors in Vienna, Austria on June 2, 2014. Yukiya Amano, called on Tehran to allow inspectors to monitor the activities in the Parchin nuclear plant, in the north of the country. (Photo by Hasan Tosun/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

DUBAI, Oct 6 (Reuters) - Iran and the U.N. nuclear watchdog will hold talks in Tehran on Tuesday, official media reported, their first since the country missed an August deadline for addressing questions about its suspected atomic bomb research.

Diplomats told Reuters last week that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was expected to make a new attempt soon to advance its long-running investigation into Iran's nuclear program.

Western officials say Iran must step up cooperation with the IAEA if it wants to reach a broader diplomatic deal with world powers that would end a decade-old nuclear dispute and gradually end crippling financial and other sanctions on the oil producer.

Iran's official IRNA news agency said an IAEA delegation would start talks with Iranian officials "to discuss the remaining issues about Iran's peaceful nuclear program." It gave no further details.

There was no immediate comment from the IAEA, a Vienna-based U.N. agency that for years has been trying to investigate Western allegations that Iran has worked on designing a nuclear warhead. Iran says its nuclear program is entirely peaceful.

Early last month, the IAEA said Iran had failed to answer questions by an agreed Aug. 25 deadline about alleged research activities into explosives testing and neutron calculations, which could be applicable to any attempt to make nuclear bombs.

Iran has rejected the accusations as baseless, but has promised to work with the IAEA since last year when Hassan Rouhani, seen as a pragmatist, became president on a platform to end its international isolation. (Reporting by Michelle Moghtader and Fredrik Dahl; Editing by Tom Heneghan)

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