IAEA meets amid Iran nuclear concerns

VIENNA, June 2 (UPI) -- The U.N.'s 35-member International Atomic Energy Agency began a five-day meeting in Vienna Monday to examine Iran's nuclear energy activities.

The meeting comes in the wake a report released last week by the agency's director, Mohammed ElBaradei, which struck a tough tone against Iran, saying the country was hiding information about alleged efforts to make nuclear warheads and defying U.N. demands that it suspend uranium enrichment.

There is deep concern about Iran on the IAEA, the Israeli Web site DEBKAfile reported Monday, saying that U.S. authorities have presented 18 documents to the IAEA supporting these contentions, using as evidence data contained in a laptop computer stolen by dissidents from an Iranian nuclear program official in late 2006.

However, DEBKAfile said its political sources say the Israeli government, paralyzed by the financial scandal surrounding Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, is unable to respond to the Iranian nuclear situation with a clear plan, and by the time its is sorted out, it may be too late to keep Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.