TEHRAN, Sept. 5 (UPI) -- Iran offered Monday five years' "full supervision" of its nuclear program by the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency if the agency lifts its sanctions.
Iran said, however, it would move forward with its uranium-enrichment programs whatever the agency decides on sanctions, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday.
"By lifting the U.N. sanctions ... the International Atomic Energy Agency can have full supervision over Iran's nuclear work for five years," Fereydoun Abbasi, the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, told the semi-official Iranian Students News Agency.
The offer comes at a time of growing international concerns over Iran's nuclear program, including a report Friday in which the U.N.'s IAEA said it was "increasingly concerned" the country may be developing its uranium-enrichment program to produce nuclear weapons.
Abbasi denied the U.N. conclusion as "fabricated and baseless" and said Iran is developing production capacity for centrifuges, used to enrich uranium.
Under U.N. sanctions dating to 2006, Iran is required to suspend uranium enrichment, and to have slowed -- but not stopped -- its nuclear program. The United Nations says Iran has not cooperated with agency inspectors.
Iran claims the uranium enrichment is for peaceful energy and medical purposes but some western countries say Tehran is using its nuclear program to pursue nuclear weapons.
