U.N. nuclear chief to visit Iran, deal may be near

VIENNA (Reuters) - The U.N. nuclear chief will travel to Tehran on Sunday in an apparent bid to secure a deal to tackle concerns over Iran's atomic activity, a few days before the Islamic state and world powers meet in Baghdad for broader talks on their dispute.

News of the rare visit came as Western diplomats said Iran and the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, were making headway towards a framework agreement on how to address IAEA suspicions that Tehran may be seeking to develop nuclear arms capability.

"I assume he wouldn't go without being fairly sure they will deliver," one Western diplomat said about the visit to the Iranian capital by IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano.

The IAEA wants Iran to address issues raised by an agency report last year that revealed intelligence pointing to past and possibly ongoing activity in the country of use in developing the means and technologies needed to build nuclear bombs.

Iran says the intelligence is fabricated. The U.N. agency says its inspectors need access to sites, documents and officials to reach credible conclusions in its inquiry.

The IAEA's priority is Parchin, where its report found that Iran had built a large containment vessel over a decade ago to conduct high-explosives tests that U.N. inspectors said were "strong indicators of possible" nuclear weapon development.

Western diplomats say they suspect Iran is cleaning the site to remove incriminating evidence, a charge Tehran dismisses.

Western diplomats accredited to the U.N. agency say Iran seems keen to agree a so-called "structured approach" - an outline of how to address the IAEA's questions - ahead of Baghdad in the apparent hope of gaining leverage there.

Iran, which denies Western accusations of a nuclear weapons agenda, says such an agreement is needed before it can consider a request by U.N. inspectors to visit Parchin.

"Amano's visit is clear evidence that a deal between the IAEA and Iran is finally about to be consummated. Or at least Iran has given the IAEA clear reason to think so," said nuclear proliferation expert Mark Fitzpatrick.

Iran and the world powers involved in nuclear diplomacy - the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany - revived negotiations in Istanbul last month after a 15-month hiatus during which the West sharpened sanctions to an unprecedented degree - targeting Iran's oil trade and banks.

The resumption of diplomacy offers a chance to defuse that tension as well as worries about a new Middle East war. The next meeting will take place in the Iraqi capital on May 23.

WEST WANTS ACTION, NOT WORDS

"Iran apparently wants to go into the Baghdad meeting with a positive wind at its back, demonstrating a posture of flexibility that it hopes will rebound to its benefit" in the Baghdad meeting, said Fitzpatrick of the International Institute for Strategic Studies think-tank.

Israel, widely thought to have the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal and convinced a nuclear Iran would pose a mortal threat, has - like the United States - not ruled out air strikes to stop Iran's atomic progress if it deems diplomacy has failed.

The last visit by an IAEA chief to Tehran was by Amano's predecessor, Mohamed ElBaradei, in October 2009.

Amano "will travel to Tehran this Sunday ... to discuss issues of mutual interest with high Iranian officials," the IAEA said in a brief statement.

It said Amano, a veteran Japanese diplomat, would meet on Monday with Iranian nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, who is Iran's main representative in the talks with the world powers.

Herman Nackaerts, head of IAEA nuclear safeguards inspections worldwide, and Assistant Director General Rafael Grossi will accompany Amano, the statement said.

The IAEA and Iran held two days of talks this week in Vienna and had been due to meet again on May 21 in the Austrian capital. The IAEA will now visit Tehran instead, raising the stakes for a substantial outcome.

Amano, who has taken a blunter approach towards Iran and its nuclear program than ElBaradei, has previously said any visit by him to Tehran would need to yield concrete results.

"His meeting with Jalili will be an important opportunity for Iran to signal its willingness to provide the transparency necessary to ensure that Iran's nuclear program is peaceful," said Greg Thielmann of the U.S.-based Arms Control Association.

Western diplomats say they would welcome any sign that Iran is prepared to stop four years of stonewalling an IAEA investigation based on Western intelligence suggesting it has researched ways to acquire the ability to produce nuclear bombs.

But they caution that it remains to be seen whether an understanding with the U.N. agency is implemented in practice, saying Iran in the past has used procedural haggling as a way to buy more time as its nuclear program advances.

Asked whether he believed a deal between the IAEA and Iran was now near, one envoy said: "I believe it when I see it."

(Editing by Janet Lawrence)

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