Iran dismissed as contradictory the latest report on the Iranian nuclear issue submitted by Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Mohamed ElBaradei to the agency's board of governors on Wednesday.

"Although ElBaradei reiterated that the IAEA witnessed no deviation from peaceful means or towards military purposes in Iran 's nuclear activities, his report emphasizes that Iran has to answer some questions on it's nuclear program which still remain unanswered," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi was quoted by the official IRNA news agency as saying.

ElBaradei's report says that the IAEA has no proof that Iran is seeking nuclear weapons, at the same time, it dose not rule out the possibility of clandestine nuclear activities due to insufficient information.

IAEA's 35-nation board of governors started to discuss the report presented by ElBaradei in the third day of its regular meeting which kicked off in Vienna on Monday.

After the meeting, ElBaradei's report will be immediately handed over to the UN Security Council.

The emergency meeting of IAEA board of governors voted on Feb. 4 to report Iran's nuclear case to the UN Security Council but called on the world body to withhold punitive actions.

Meanwhile, Asefi blamed the United States for the current deadlock on the Iranian nuclear issue, saying that "the Americans have politicized the atmosphere in which no expert work can be done".

"The world will witness how the agency can defend its identity, " Asefi said. "Washington is making efforts to weaken international organizations, including the IAEA, so that it could advance its policies in the world."

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also warned the IAEA against succumbing to the pressure of the United States.

"The efforts of the Iranian nation to access nuclear energy is for peaceful purposes. The IAEA has not even found one single document proving the country's deviation (from the peaceful use of nuclear technology)," Ahmadinejad said on his visit to the western province of Lorestan.

The United States is pushing the IAEA meeting to approve an official referral of Iran's case to the UN Security Council which could impose sanctions on the country.

However, the Non-Aligned Movement states called for the case to be solved within the IAEA, arguing that the bloc "strongly believes that diplomacy and dialogue must continue in order to find a long-term peaceful solution to the issue and engagement of other UN bodies at this juncture should be avoided."

The dispute over Iran's nuclear issue escalated after Tehran resumed nuclear fuel research on Jan. 10, which sparked the IAEA decision to report its case to the UN Security Council.

Iran then stopped the IAEA's snap inspections of its nuclear sites and resumed small-scale uranium enrichment work.

Iran denied the U.S. charge of developing nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear program, insisting on its right to peaceful nuclear technology.

Source: Xinhua