REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, DUBAI/VIENNA - Iran agreed on Sunday to take seven further steps within three months under a deal with the UN atomic watchdog meant to help allay international concern about Tehran's nuclear program.

A joint statement by Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) issued after the two-day meeting did not give details on the new measures agreed under a framework cooperation accord signed in November. Details of the new steps would be reported by IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano to the UN agency's 35-nation governing board shortly, the statement added.

A diplomatic source said one of the measures related to a long-stalled investigation by the UN nuclear agency into possible military dimensions to Iran's atomic activities. Iran has repeatedly denied any such ambitions.

That would be a potentially significant step forward as the probe into suspected atomic bomb research has been deadlocked for years because of what the West sees as Iranian stonewalling of the Vienna-based IAEA.

It could also send a positive signal to separate, high-stakes negotiations between Iran and six world powers which are due to start on February 18, aimed at reaching a broader diplomatic settlement of the decade-old dispute over Tehran's nuclear work.

The IAEA had hoped to persuade Iran in the talks that started in Tehran on Saturday to finally start addressing suspicions that it may have worked on designing an atomic bomb.

Iran has rejected Western and Israeli accusations that is working to develop nuclear weapons as baseless and said it will cooperate with the IAEA to clear up any "ambiguities".

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