The IAEA chief Mohammad ElBaradei has criticized US detractors for not giving Iran a chance to come clean on past nuclear activities.

ElBaradei further said despite suspicions over Iran's future nuclear activities, the International Atomic Energy Agency had not encountered any undeclared facilities, enrichment activities or any 'weaponization' programs.

The UN watchdog agency has not received any information from the intelligence sources making claims in this regard, he added. "We haven't received any smoking gun," ElBaradei said.

The UN nuclear agency had not seen any evidence that requires going beyond diplomacy, he said, addressing those saying that the solution is to bomb Iran.

ElBaradei said the talk of bombing made him "shudder" because the rhetoric was reminiscent of the period before the Iraq war, when he had pleaded for more time to let inspectors verify claims that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.

He said Tehran's decision to cooperate with the agency should be welcomed, adding that the IAEA's deal with Iran enabled cooperation mandated by the Security Council.

``We were criticized for refusing to accept "yes" as an answer, which I thought was a bit disingenuous,'' he said, referring to earlier allegations that Iran was using the deal to avert stiffer UN sanctions.

The chief UN nuclear inspector also urged both Iran and the US to agree to a time-out to pave the way for a return to negotiations.

MK/HAR