After two years of investigating Iran’s atomic programme, the UN nuclear watchdog still cannot rule out that Tehran has a secret atom-bomb project as Washington insists, the agency’s chief said on Tuesday.‘‘Have we seen any proof of a weapons programme? Have we seen undeclared (uranium) enrichment? . Obviously until today there is none of that,’’ International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed ElBaradei told reporters before entering a closed-door session of the IAEA Board of Governors.‘‘But are we in a position to say that everything is peaceful? Obviously we are not at this stage,’’ he said, summing up a two-year IAEA investigation of Tehran’s atomic programme.Although ElBaradei’s inspectors have uncovered many potentially arms-related activities in Iran, it has found no ‘‘smoking gun’’ to back US charges of a covert bomb programme.One of the main items on the Board’s agenda this week is a resolution drafted by Germany, France and Britain calling for the IAEA to make a ‘‘definitive determination’’ in November on Iran’s nuclear programme.US Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Tuesday that Washington sees signs of increasing concern by the international community over Iran’s nuclear programme.‘‘But I think we can’t just keep having Board meetings with no action taken by the IAEA, which is an agent of the United Nations. And ultimately, if there is not satisfaction on the part of Iran, it has to go to the Security Council,’’ he added. ‘‘We would reject any ultimatums,’’ Iran’s chief delegate to the IAEA meeting, Hossein Mousavian said. He did not say how Tehran would respond, but he hinted that an ultimatum would create bad will inside Iran.
