VIENNA (AFP) — The UN’s latest widely-awaited report on Iran’s nuclear program could be delayed by disagreements between atomic watchdog chief Mohammed ElBaradei and his technical staff, diplomats said Monday.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has not announced a publication date, but diplomats close to the Vienna-based watchdog expected it to come out around February 20.
The release could now be put off by a few days because of differences between ElBaradei and his technical staff over the report’s findings, one Western diplomat told AFP on condition of anonymity.
“Originally, we were expecting it to come on February 20,” the diplomat said.
However, “there were disagreements between ElBaradei and his technical staff. It should now be published maybe one week later, so in the last week of February.”
Another diplomat, who similarly insisted on not being identified in view of the confidentiality of the information, suggested the same thing.
However, IAEA sources told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) that ElBaradei would submit his report to the board as scheduled.
ElBaradei had hoped to wrap up consultations with the technical team -- on which he bases his report -- by the end of this week, but that deadline appears to have been extended into next week, the diplomat said.
The report, which will then be put to the IAEA’s board of governors at a meeting from March 3-7, is crucial to UN Security Council deliberations over whether to impose further sanctions on Iran.
While Western powers such as the United States are keen for tougher sanctions, non-allied countries such as South Africa have said they want to wait for ElBaradei’s report first.
ElBaradei’s previous report in November found that Iran had made important progress in answering some of the key questions surrounding its nuclear drive.
Under a “work plan” drawn up by ElBaradei and Tehran, Iran initially had until the end of last year to resolve all outstanding issues.
That deadline passed. But then, following a trip to Tehran in mid-January, ElBaradei gave Iran another four weeks.
In Tehran on Monday, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad again insisted that Iran had an inalienable right to nuclear energy and would “not back down an inch” in the nuclear standoff with some Western countries including the U.S.
The Iranian leader once again declared that the Iranian nuclear dossier was “closed.