IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei (R) speaks with his deputy Olli Heinonen before a board meeting at the IAEA headquarters in Vienna's U.N. headquarters February 2, 2006. (Xinhua/AFP)

VIENNA, Feb. 2 (Xinhuanet) -- The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) held here on Thursday an extraordinary meeting of Board of Governors to discuss the Iran nuclear issue.

    The meeting is expected to make a decision on a draft resolution tabled Wednesday by France, Germany and Britain, which asked to report the Iran nuclear issue to the UN Security Council.     

    However, a diplomat told Xinhua that the meeting, originally arranged just for one day, might be extended to two days or more.

    The diplomat said this is because of the "complicated" situation on deliberating of the draft resolution.

    The draft resolution asks Iran to take various confidence building steps on its peaceful nature of nuclear program.

    The steps include: to "re-establish full suspension of all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities," including research and development and to "reconsider the construction of a research reactor moderated by heavy water."

    The draft resolution requests the IAEA's director general to "report to" the UN Security Council these steps required of Iran.

    However, Iran, a member of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), fought back with the backing-up of the NAM, which has a dozen of seats within the 35-member IAEA Board of Governors.

    

Iran's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Aliasghar Soltaniyeh(second L) talks to unidentified colleagues in Vienna's U.N. headquarters February 2, 2006. (Xinhua/AFP)

Diplomats said the NAM had held a series of meetings to explore counter-measures, including one meeting on 9:00 a.m. local time.

    The IAEA extraordinary meeting, originally arranged to start at10:30 a.m., was postponed to around 11:00 a.m. local time.

    IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei cancelled the pre-meeting briefing, a usual practice he had done at previous Board meetings.

    However, Russian ambassador to the IAEA Grigory Berdennikor came out to tell the press that Russia does not object to reporting the Iran nuclear issue to the UN Security Council.

    However, the ambassador said Russia would not "ask the UN Security Council to undertake any action" if Iran continues to cooperation with the IAEA.

    According to the IAEA rules, merely a simple majority is needed when adopting a resolution at the Board of Governors.

    But diplomats said the EU-3 want a unanimous adoption in a bid to push more pressure on Iran. Enditem