TEHRAN (Mehr News Agency) – Iran's representative at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Ali-Akbar Salehi here on Friday rejected certain media reports that Iran was trying to buy nuclear material from abroad stressing that the Islamic Republic is pursuing no plans to that end.

Salehi told the Mehr News Agency that the media quotes of the IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei in that connection could not be true, stressing that the reports had been a fresh wave of propaganda against the Islamic Republic.

In an interview with the BBC on Friday ElBaradei said Iran had shopped for nuclear components on the international black market.

"ElBaradei is a wise individual and as far as we know him, these remarks cannot be true," Salehi said. "The IAEA chief cannot make these comments under the prevailing conditions and the agency is not expected to take any official position

[toward Iran] before the September meeting of its Board of Governors." AA/ End