Iran on Tuesday urged the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to keep the Iranian nuclear case in the technical domain and free from political influences.

Ali Asghar Soltaniyeh, Iran's representative to the Vienna- based IAEA, made the call during his meeting with IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Tehran expects the IAEA not to let the Iran case to be driven from technical domain into a political one, Soltaniyeh was quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, Alaeddin Borujerdi, chairman of Iran's Majlis ( parliament) National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, also urged ElBaradei to make technical evaluation which is in line with the IAEA mandate rather than political statements on Iran's nuclear program.

"According to international law, Iran's nuclear dossier should not be referred to the UN Security Council," Borujerdi was quoted by the semi-official Mehr news agency as saying.

Borujerdi expressed hope that ElBaradei would take the continued cooperation between the two sides into consideration in his future pronouncements about Iran and would maintain the IAEA's impartiality.

The Iranian calls came one day after officials of the European trio of Britain, France and Germany as well as the United States, Russia and China held a close-door meeting in London to discuss the Iranian nuclear issue.

At the London meeting, the European trio informed the other participants of their intention to call for an emergency IAEA board of governors meeting on Feb. 2-3.

The European Union (EU), which had been trying in vain for two years to dissuade Iran from its efforts to build nuclear fuel cycle, is endeavoring to refer Iran's case to the UN Security Council.

Iran on Jan. 10 resumed its nuclear research work which had been suspended for more than two years, incurring condemnation and the referral attempt of the EU and the United States.

The United States accuses Iran of developing nuclear weapons secretly, a charge rejected by Iran as politically motivated.

Source: Xinhua