Iran, IAEA talks expected to extend to Thursday

TEHRAN, Dec. 11 (UPI) -- A spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran said Wednesday talks in Vienna with the IAEA may take more than a day to find common ground.

Inspectors with the International Atomic Energy Agency arrived in Tehran last weekend to inspect Iran's nuclear facilities. Behrouz Kamalvandi, a spokesman for Iran's nuclear organization, said talks were in progress in Vienna to discuss Iran's relationship with the IAEA.

"The meeting which is being held to implement joint actions by Iran and the IAEA will last for six to seven hours today and if the two sides cannot come to a conclusion on the details, it will continue for a second day (Thursday)," he told the semiofficial Fars News Agency.

Iran under the terms of an agreement reached with the IAEA last month Tehran agrees to let inspectors survey some of Iran's nuclear facilities.

The spokesman offered no information on possible inspections of the Parchin military complex.

U.N. nuclear inspectors were denied access to the Parchin facility last year. The IAEA said it was concerned about the work under way at site though Iran has said inspectors had failed to convince it a visit to the complex was necessary.

Iran is suspected of pursuing the technology needed to make a nuclear weapon. A November deal reached with Western powers in Geneva gives Iran relief from some economic sanctions in exchange for concessions on uranium enrichment.