Friday, January 6 2006 10:12 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Vienna: Iran reneged yesterday (Jan 05, 2006) on a pledge to provide the head of the UN nuclear watchdog agency with details of its plans to move toward uranium enrichment, failing to send representatives as promised for discussions on the programme.

"The meeting never took place", said International Atomic Energy Agency spokeswoman Melissa Fleming, adding IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei was 'still seeking clarification' of what Tehran would do on Monday when, it says, it will resume some work with enrichment equipment.

A diplomat accredited to the agency said the IAEA appeared resigned to not getting the details it had asked for before the Iranians start their work January 9. He cited El Baradei as saying he did not expect the high-ranking Iranian delegation to ask for a new appointment before flying back to Tehran.

Iranian representatives already had rebuffed El Baradei yesterday when he asked for clarification of their plans. But they said then they would be more forthcoming today on what they describe as the restart of research on and development of uranium enrichment.

Iran says it is interested in enrichment to make nuclear fuel, but the United States and an increasing number of other nations say Tehran wants the technology to make weapons grade uranium or nuclear warheads.