Iran is ready to discuss issues of 'concern' about its disputed nuclear programme with UN atomic watchdog experts during their planned visit to Tehran this week, the foreign ministry said on Tuesday. The visit by International Atomic Energy Agency experts on Thursday will focus on discussions regarding "Iran's nuclear rights as well as its peaceful nuclear activities," ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told a weekly briefing.

But "certain issues that have possibly become a source of concern for (IAEA) officials can also be discussed," Mehmanparast said, without elaborating. The IAEA has urged Iran over the past year to clarify a number of issues that could point to a possible covert military dimension in Iran's nuclear activities. The watchdog has also tried in vain to gain access to Parchin military base near Tehran, where it suspects that experiments with explosives capable of triggering a nuclear weapon could have been carried out.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2012