VIENNA (AP)- Iran is ready to provide answers on past nuclear activities to the International Atomic Energy Agency within the next few months, the agency's head said Friday after meeting with the country's top nuclear negotiator.

But the Iranian official suggested the offer was conditional to an end of UN Security Council involvement in Iran's nuclear program. The council has already imposed two sets of sanctions on the Islamic republic over the past half year for its refusal to freeze uranium enrichment and is poised to impose new penalties. The Iranian proposal, to IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei, came on the eve of a new round of talks between Larijani and Javier Solana, the EU's foreign policy chief and built on a recent offer by Larijani to provide answers to questions sought by the IAEA in its four-year Iran probe. "I hope that in the next few weeks we should be able to start planning a plan of action which I hope that we should be able to conclude within two months," ElBaradei told reporters at his Vienna headquarters. "This would be key to our ability to provide assurances about ... (the nature of) Iran's nuclear program." But Larijani suggested the offer was conditional on reaching a "political understanding with Mr. Solana" — apparent shorthand for a deal in which the Security Council drops or at least suspends its involvement in Iran's nuclear file