"The soonest you sign the protocols and open all of your nuclear programs to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspections, the better for you and for us", Mr. Xavier Solana, the European Union’s "super" Minister for security and foreign affairs said in Tehran.

Speaking at a joint conference with the Iranian Foreign Affairs Minister Kamal Kharrazi in Tehran, Mr. Solana said bluntly: "If you don't sign the protocol it will be a bad news for you, for, this is not a bargain, expecting a reward from doing it", he explained.

The IAEA has given Iran until 8 September to sign an additional protocol to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty that would allow IAEA inspectors to descend on its nuclear sites without warning to ensure that Tehran is not secretly developing atomic weapons.

The United States and Israel accuses the Islamic Republic for having secret plans aimed at producing atomic bomb out of facilities destined for civilian use, like the nuclear powered electrical plant it is constructing in the Persian Gulf port of Booshehr with the help of Russia.

But Tehran insists that it is not building up a nuclear-based military arsenal and all its atomic projects are for civilian purposes.

So far, Iran has adamantly refused to bow to the international pressures, demanding that in return for signing the additional protocols, the IAEA provide it with advanced nuclear technologies.

Meeting the EU Minister, President Mohammad Khatami reiterated that Islam prohibited atomic weapons. "Atomic weapons have no place in Iran's defense policy", Khatami said, adding however that Iran had an "absolute right to peaceful nuclear technology".

In the interview aired on Friday, he also said Iran's nuclear program had been going on "far longer than the agency had realised".

IAEA inspectors in their last survey of Iranian atomic-related installations found substantial amount of radioactivity in areas near Natanz, in central Iran and site of the country’s secret installations for enriching uranium.

Mr. El-Brade’i said although he was not certain of the countries that made the equipment Iran had acquired on the black market, but he had a "pretty good idea" which ones they were.

Media reports have named Pakistan, a nuclear weapons state that has refused to sign the nuclear 1968 Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), as one of countries whose nuclear technology Iran is believed to be using.

But both Tehran and Islamabad have denied the reports.

Stopping short of accusing the Islamic Republic of lying to him about its atomic projects for military purposes, the IAEA Chief said Iran had failed to give the IAEA a complete picture of its nuclear programs.

"They have not really been fully transparent in telling us in advance what was going on", Mr. El-Barade’i told the BBC, according to a Reuters dispatch from Vienna, where IAEA is based.

Asked if he believed Iran was running a secret weapons program, ElBaradei said: "It might be, it might not be."

"I need to really get the Iranians to tell me the full, complete story," he said. "And I would like Iran to be more proactive, more transparent."

Asked what Iran would get in return for signing, Solana said: "The only thing you have to expect is we continue working as friends."

The IAEA said in a report obtained by Reuters on Tuesday that Iran had improved cooperation, but there were still questions about weapons-grade uranium found at a site in Iran.

Iran is the first stop on Solana's regional tour that will also take him to Israel, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, where he will focus on the battered Middle East peace "road map". ENDS EU IRAN NUCLEAR 30803