IRAN: British Foreign Secretary Mr Jack Straw yesterday urged Iran to open up its controversial nuclear programme to international inspectors "as soon as possible".
Mr Straw flew into the Iranian capital with a warning for the country's leaders that failure to co-operate on the nuclear issue could damage its chances of a lucrative trade deal with the European Union.
His call comes amid growing international concern that Iran's civil power programme is a cover for the development of nuclear weapons.
Earlier this month the International Atomic Energy Agency issued a report calling on Iran to sign up to a new protocol to the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
The IAEA wants Tehran to stop the enrichment of uranium - a key step in building an atomic bomb - and allow inspectors full access to its nuclear installations.
"We want to see them do it as soon as possible," Mr Straw told reporters travelling on his plane.
"The sooner they do this the greater the reassurance that can be provided to the IAEA and the United Nations."
Mr Straw, who was meeting Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi, linked progress on the issue to trade talks with the EU due to start in September.
"The EU has made clear that co-operation on one area - for example trade - has to go in step with co-operation on human rights and international obligations under the NPT," he said.
The IAEA is also scheduled to hold its next board meeting in September and officials said that it would be a "reasonable timescale" to expect the Iranians to have signed up to the new protocol by then.
Mr Straw said that he would also be raising the issue of Iran's influence in neighbouring Iraq, over which he acknowledged there had been "some problems".
The United States has publicly warned Tehran not to interfere in Iraq in support of pro-Iranian Shia Muslims.
Mr Straw said he would be emphasising that it was in Iran's own interest to see a stable Iraq.
Mr Straw's visit - his fourth to Tehran - got to off an unpromising start when British ambassador Mr Richard Dalton was summoned last week to explain remarks by Mr Blair at Prime Minister's Questions apparently backing students protesting against the Iranian government.
The Iranians are acutely sensitive to any suggestion of British interference in their internal affairs, and Mr Straw sought to smooth over the row saying that Mr Blair did not refer to Iran in his reply and was simply making a "general statement".
Iranian conservatives, however, have condemned Mr Straw's visit.
"Jack Straw's visit is an insult to the Iranian nation," wrote Hossein Shariatmadari, editor of Kayhan newspaper.
"Blair's remarks are seen as flagrant enmity with the Islamic Republic and support of groups which seek to topple the system," he wrote. "Accepting Straw means nothing but bribing the enemy and yielding to humiliation." - PA, Reuters