VIENNA, Austria (AP) – Iran accused America and its allies Wednesday of misinforming the world about its nuclear intentions, saying they cooked up “poisonous food” and served it to the U.N. Security Council to get it to act against Tehran.

Ali Ashgar Soltanieh, Tehran’s chief delegate to the International Atomic Energy Agency, also accused America and Israel of threatening military attacks on its nuclear facilities and said Security Council sanctions against his country were illegal.

Washington in turn criticized Tehran for ignoring Security Council demands to freeze uranium enrichment and said Iranian “intransigence” in answering questions about its nuclear program raises the level of concern that it might be seeking to make nuclear arms.

The comments, inside and on the sidelines of a 35-nation IAEA board meeting, came as part of a review of a report by its chief, Mohamed ElBaradei, confirming that Iran had defied a Security Council deadline last month and continued expanding its enrichment program.

On Thursday, the gathering was to decide on partly or fully suspending 23 technical aid programs for Iran. Ahead of that agenda item, diplomats accredited to the meeting said approval of the suspensions was virtually certain.

Any such move would be in line with existing Security Council sanctions and would come amid discussions among the five permanent Council members on possible new sanctions against Iran. Council diplomats in New York said these could include a travel ban, an expanded list of people and companies subject to an asset freeze, an arms embargo and trade restrictions, but they cautioned that differences remained.

Mr. Soltanieh accused America and Israel, of “continuing to make threats against Iran’s … (nuclear) facilities.” But he suggested that Tehran’s nuclear program would survive any aggression, citing ElBaradei in declaring that nuclear “knowledge cannot be bombed.”

While not directly threatening attacks, both Israel and America have not ruled out any option in stopping what they say is Iran’s weapons program.

Mr. Soltanieh denied such aims, saying: “Weapons of mass destruction have no place in the Islamic Republic of Iran’s defense doctrine.” Iran steadfastly insists it is not interested in nuclear arms and wants to enrich uranium not to create the fissile core of warheads but to generate energy.

Outside the meeting, he attributed international pressure on Iran to give up enrichment to “the poisonous food served up by a few (IAEA) members and sent to New York,” to the Security Council.

He again rejected any possibility that Iran would freeze enrichment, declaring: “Iran is (a) master of … enrichment.”

“I know that Americans do not want the world to know that reality, (but) they have to swallow this reality.”

Reflecting the American stance, chief delegate Gregory L. Schulte accused Iran of ignoring “the serious international concerns expressed by the Security Council” in demanding a freeze of enrichment.

Mr. Schulte also criticized Iran for continuing to build facilities that will produce plutonium – another possible pathway to nuclear arms – and thus again ignoring a Security Council demand. He cited ElBaradei in saying that his agency cannot conclude that Iran’s program is peaceful unless Tehran stops stonewalling on questions posed by his agency. And he urged Tehran to reverse a ban on 38 IAEA inspectors, all from countries that back Security Council action against the Islamic republic.

A European Union statement touched on essentially the same points.

Outside the meeting, German chief delegate Peter Gottwald, whose country holds the EU presidency, said Iran’s refusal to heed the Security Council demand on suspending enrichment constituted “unacceptable behavior.”

On North Korea – the meeting’s other main focus – Japan and other nations urged Pyongyang to honor its commitments under a six-nation deal that ultimately commits it to scrap its nuclear weapons program. ElBaradei plans to go to the communist nation March 13 as part of the agreement.

North Korea forced IAEA monitors to leave in late 2002, withdrawing from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and reactivating its mothballed nuclear program, which led to its first atomic weapons test in October.

The Feb. 13 deal reached in Beijing calls for North Korea to close its main nuclear complex in Yongbyon, north of Pyongyang, allow IAEA monitors back into the country to verify the closure, and then disable all its nuclear facilities.

In return, North Korea would get economic assistance and political incentives, including the creation of a bilateral working group on establishing diplomatic relations with America.

U.N. officials familiar with the North Korea file said the board will likely agree to meet in a special session once Mr. ElBaradei returns and – if his report is positive – formally authorize the return of IAEA inspectors to the North.

An American statement cautioned that Security Council sanctions remained in effect, urging all U.N. members to “continue to implement fully and effectively the provisions of the resolution.”

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Associated Press writer Palma Benczenleitner in Vienna, Austria, contributed to this report.

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