MOSCOW, October 28 (RIA Novosti) - Iran will formally respond to the UN nuclear watchdog's uranium enrichment proposals on Thursday, the Iranian Mehr news agency has reported.
It said Iran's envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Ali Asghar Soltanieh, will meet IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei "and give Iran's response to the Vienna talks."
Talks in Vienna between Iran, the UN and three world powers on its nuclear program ended last Wednesday with a deal involving Iran shipping out its low-enriched uranium to Russia and France. The uranium would be enriched in Russia and then sent to France to prepare it for use in an Iranian reactor.
The Vienna talks, aimed at easing international suspicions of a covert Iranian atomic weapons program, involved Iran, the UN, the U.S., Russia and France.
Iran announced in September that it was building a new nuclear fuel enrichment plant near the city of Qom, some 100 kilometers south of Tehran, which sparked international calls for harsher sanctions against the country.
The announcement fueled fresh concerns that Iran could conduct covert uranium enrichment activities, and the IAEA demanded that Tehran provide detailed information and access to the new nuclear facility as soon as possible.
Iran is under three sets of UN Security Council sanctions over its refusal to halt uranium enrichment.
The Islamic Republic has consistently denied it is seeking to make nuclear weapons, but has insisted on its right to a peaceful program aimed at generating electricity.
