REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, VIENNA - The UN nuclear watchdog signaled its determination on Monday to get to the bottom of suspicions that Iran may have worked on designing an atomic bomb, a day after Tehran agreed to start addressing the sensitive issue.

Chief UN nuclear inspector Tero Varjoranta said progress had been good during February 8-9 talks in Tehran but that much work remained in clarifying concerns of possible military links to Iran's nuclear program.

"There are still a lot of outstanding issues," Varjoranta, deputy director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said at Vienna airport after returning from the Iranian capital. "We will address them all in due course."

Iran denies Western allegations it seeks the capability to make nuclear weapons, saying such claims are baseless and forged by its foes. Years of hostile rhetoric and confrontation have raised fears of a new war in the Middle East.

But a diplomatic push to resolve the decade-old dispute gained new momentum after last June's election of a relative moderate, Hassan Rouhani, as Iran's president on a platform to ease its international isolation. Iran and six powers agreed late last year on an interim deal to curb Tehran's nuclear work in exchange for some easing of sanctions that have battered the oil producer's economy and they will next week start talks on a long-term agreement.

The IAEA investigation into what it calls the possible military dimensions (PMD) to Iran's nuclear activity is separate from, but closely linked to, wider diplomacy between Tehran and the United States, France, Germany, Britain, Russia and China.

"Continued progress on resolving PMD issues will go a long way to demonstrate to the international community that Iran is not pursuing nuclear weapons and is willing to come clean about its past activities," Kelsey Davenport of the Arms Control Association, a US  research and advocacy group, said.

The IAEA said on Sunday that Iran had agreed to take seven new practical measures within three months under a November transparency deal with the IAEA meant to help allay concern about the nuclear program. For the first time, one of them specifically dealt with an issue that is part of the UN nuclear agency's inquiry into suspected atomic bomb research by Iran, which has repeatedly denied any such ambitions.

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