Wednesday, April 26 2006 12:03 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Vienna: The head of Iran's nuclear agency, Vice President Gholam Reza Aghazadeh, is to hold last-minute talks tomorrow with the United Nations nuclear watchdog, two days before a UN deadline for Tehran to suspend uranium enrichment, diplomats told sources.

Aghazadeh would head a delegation "for technical talks" at the headquarters in Vienna of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), one diplomat said yesterday (Apr 25, 2006).

A second diplomat said Aghazadeh would meet IAEA director general Mohamed ElBaradei but IAEA officials refused to confirm this.

Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad said yesterday that the Islamic Republic was refusing to suspend uranium enrichment, a process that can be used to produce fuel for civilian nuclear reactors and, when continued much further, to manufacture atom bomb material.

The first diplomat said the Iranian visit was unlikely to produce a breakthrough.

"(It) doesn't mean much actually. I don't see that the Iranians are going to come around," he said.

"It's more of a pacifying gesture." ElBaradei had personally appealed during a trip to Tehran earlier this month for Iran to comply with IAEA demands to halt enrichment and cooperate with IAEA inspectors.