Iran says answered bomb allegations, "matter over"

By Karin Strohecker

VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran said on Thursday it had given U.N. investigators more than 200 pages of answers to questions about intelligence reports that it secretly researched how to make atom bombs and declared "the matter is over."

But Iran's envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency said Tehran would heed any requests for clarification after the IAEA chief demanded "full disclosure," a call broadly endorsed by a 35-nation agency Board of Governors meeting this week.

Tehran had turned over "more than 200 pages of explanations and documents" and held more than 70 hours of talks with U.N. inspectors, Iranian Ambassador Ali Asghar Soltanieh said, denying his government had issued only empty denials.

"We left no question unanswered. We have done our job. This matter is over," he said as the four-day meeting ended.

But, he told reporters: "Some of them ... are under evaluation and assessment (by the) agency... If they have any questions we will answer them. The trend of removing the ambiguities will continue. This is our policy."

Soltanieh also said Iran summarized its points in 30 pages of documents passed to IAEA governors. "Quite simply the whole allegations are baseless. Nobody needs to prove it," he said.

A Western diplomat called Iran's move a "publicity stunt, certainly no substitute for substantive answers the IAEA needs."

Western powers suspect Iran wants to divert nuclear energy into building atomic bombs. Iran, an oil-producing giant, says its uranium enrichment program is only for electricity generation so it can export more crude.