Tehran outlines nuclear fuel deal to UN watchdog

Vienna: Iran outlined to the UN nuclear watchdog on Monday a deal to give up some of its enriched uranium, calling it major progress towards defusing international tensions over its atomic aspirations.

But Western powers see the deal as overtaken by events including escalating enrichment by Tehran and, along with Russia and China, have drafted broader sanctions against the Islamic state. The proposal to swap low-enriched uranium (LEU) for fuel to run an Iranian medical research reactor, aimed at allaying fears Iran is trying to amass fissile material for nuclear weapons, was agreed last week by Tehran with Turkey and Brazil.

A letter signed by Iranian nuclear programme chief Ali Akbar Salehi was handed over to International Atomic Energy Agency director-general Yukiya Amano at a 45-minute meeting in Vienna, an Iranian diplomat told reporters. He gave no details.

Iran's Arabic-language Al Alam state television quoted Salehi's letter as saying the deal was "a major step forward" towards defusing tensions over its nuclear energy programme.