VIENNA, June 5: Europe's big three - Britain, France and Germany - are not ready to break off cooperation with Iran in uncovering its nuclear secrets despite damning new revelations from the UN nuclear watchdog , diplomats said on Saturday.

The Euro-3 told a meeting of European Union states in Vienna on Friday that they are to present a resolution stressing continued cooperation with Iran when the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) meets in the Austrian capital on June 14, according to diplomats.

The United States accuses Iran of hiding a programme to develop nuclear weapons but is not expected to push for a tough resolution, diplomats said.

They said Washington is not only hampered by the situation in Iraq, where it needs Iran to at least not inflame the Shia population, but also does not have support at the IAEA for its hardline stance.

The United States has called for the IAEA, which has been investigating the Iranian programme since February 2003, to refer the Islamic Republic to the UN Security Council for possible international sanctions.

Washington accused Iran last week of continuing to hide clandestine nuclear activities, after an IAEA report said agency inspectors had found more traces in Iran of highly enriched uranium (HEU) that could be bomb-grade.

This cast serious doubt on Iran's claim that the HEU contamination came from imported equipment rather than HEU it had introduced or tried to make.

The IAEA also reported that Iran, which says its nuclear programme is for peaceful, civilian purposes, has admitted to importing parts for sophisticated P-2 centrifuges for enriching uranium, going back on claims that it had manufactured the parts domestically.

HEU is made by centrifuges and can be fuel for nuclear reactors or the explosive in an atom bomb.

The EU-3 had struck in October 2003 an agreement with Iran to work with the IAEA, including building confidence with a voluntary suspension of uranium enrichment, and the Europeans are still holding to this line despite Iran's failure to halt all enrichment-related activities and failure to fully disclose its nuclear programme.-AFP