UN nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei praised Iran on Thursday for cooperating with the International Atomic Energy Agency, but he urged Tehran to be more open about its nuclear program.

Mohamed ElBaradei: “Our progress over the past two months has been made possible by an increased level of cooperation on the part of Iran, in accordance with the work plan. However, I would continue to urge Iran to be more proactive in providing information and in accelerating the pace of this cooperation, in order for the Agency to be able to clarify all major remaining outstanding issues by the end of the year.”

ElBaradei repeated that there is no evidence Iran is developing nuclear weapons. The United States responded by claiming that the IAEA report shows that Iran had fallen short in steps to gain trust in its atomic work. Gregory Schulte, the US ambassador to the IAEA, said the United Nations should now consider tougher sanctions.

Gregory Schulte: “We don’t see this report as a positive outcome, and I think my statement was clear in quoting what the foreign ministers, the P5 plus one, said on September 28th, and that’s absent a positive outcome reported by the Director General (of IAEA) and by Javier Solana, that the UN Security Council needs to move forward with the third resolution.”

Iran’s ambassador to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, accused the United States of having a hidden agenda and said the Bush administration was misusing the IAEA to pursue harsher measures against Iran.

Ali Asghar Soltanieh: “We will continue this mood of cooperation, provided that the international community and peace-loving countries prevent the United States or others to make noise and create problems and jeopardize, in fact, this constructive approach by any measure in the United Nations Security Council. United Nations Security Council involvement has to be stopped. The sooner, the better.”