London: Amidst a walkout by Iran, the UN nuclear watchdog on September 12 called on Teheran to provide full access to its nuclear sites and suspend all nuclear activity till the resolution of outstanding issues by October 31.

In a strongly worded resolution at the meeting of its Board of Governors in Vienna, the International Atomic Energy Agency asked Iran to give full details of its nuclear activity and also sign a protocol with the IAEA promising that it would abide by its Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty obligations.

"We reject this ultimatum," Iranian Ambassador to the deliberations Ali Akbar Salehi said as he stormed out of 35-nation Board of Governors meeting. He also rejected US charges that his country ran a covert nuclear weapons programme and accused US of planning invasion into another territory in the Middle East.

Indian Ambassador T P Sreenivasan, said at the meeting that he would like to defer comment on matters pertaining to Iran's obligations under the NPT to the states parties to the Treaty.

"At the same time, we attach central importance to the safeguards system of the IAEA, which in fact is one of the most important pillars of international co-operation in the peaceful uses of atomic energy, which this Agency overseas," he said.

PTI