United Nations atomic agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei called on Iran and the U.S. to give inspectors a chance to reduce tensions over the Islamic Republic's nuclear work.

``I see war drums that are basically saying that the solution is to bomb Iran,'' ElBaradei, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said today in an interview in Vienna. ``It makes me shudder because some of the rhetoric is a reminder'' of the period before the Iraq war.

ElBaradei reiterated expectations that Iran's atomic program, subject to IAEA inspectors' scrutiny since 2003, may be cleared by the end of this year of suspicion that the project was used as cover for nuclear weapons development.

``We have not come to see any undeclared activities or weaponization of their program,'' ElBaradei said. ``Nor have we gotten intelligence to that effect.''

U.S. officials have repeatedly criticized IAEA-Iranian plans for the Islamic Republic to answer questions about its past nuclear work. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns described the plan as an insufficient ``dalliance'' to stall more sanctions against Iran, according to a Sept. 4 State Department transcript of an interview with Radio Free Europe.

Gregory Schulte, the U.S. ambassador to the IAEA, said last month the plan has ``real limitations'' because it doesn't force Iran to open manufacturing and military facilities to inspectors.

`Disingenuous'

ElBaradei, who won the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize along with the agency that he runs, called criticism of the IAEA's Iran inspection plans ``disingenuous.''

``For the last few years we have been told by the Security Council, by the board we have to clarify the outstanding issues in Iran because these outstanding issues are the ones that have led to the lack of confidence, the crisis,'' ElBaradei said in his 28th-floor office overlooking the Austrian capital.

The IAEA and Iran published an agreement on Aug. 27 that gives inspectors greater access to Iranian atomic facilities. Three days later, in a report, the agency cleared Iran of suspicion surrounding experiments with plutonium and the discovery of highly enriched uranium particles.

The IAEA-monitored nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, to which Iran is a signatory, allows the enrichment of uranium or the reprocessing of plutonium for power plants while banning weapons production.

UN Sanctions

Iran has been under UN sanctions since December for refusing to suspend enrichment while inspectors tried to determine the source of Iran's uranium-enrichment technology, the origin of blueprints with some details of a nuclear warhead, and whether experiments with plutonium were part of an arms program.

The Bush administration accuses Iran of trying to destabilize the Middle East and using the development of nuclear power to disguise the pursuit of a weapon. Iran denies the allegations.

ElBaradei dismissed critics of the agreement who say the wording of the deal may let Iran's government avoid future scrutiny by inspectors. Nuclear physicist David Albright of the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington called the deal ``flawed'' in a note published Aug. 30.

``We are the ones who control the process,'' ElBaradei said. ``No issue can be closed until our people judge on a technical level that they are closed. Iran is taking a very high risk if they don't cooperate.''

Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Iran's ex-President and head of the Assembly of Experts, the body which elects Iran's religious supreme leader, said the IAEA ``has shown its good will.'' He urged the U.S. to negotiate.

Way Out

``If any way out is left, it is negotiation,'' Rafsanjani said during Friday prayers in Tehran, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency. ``Don't repeat mistakes. Islamic Iran is not seeking atomic weapons and will use the technology in the service of mankind.''

ElBaradei said he would like to see Iran freeze its enrichment program and the Security Council suspend sanctions in order to give the U.S. and Iranian governments time to negotiate a settlement.

``I call on both sides to take a time out,'' ElBaradei said. ``Sanctions, pressure are one aspect of diplomacy. A long-term solution won't work on the basis of sanctions alone.''


* To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan Tirone in Vienna at  jtirone@bloomberg.net .