Syria would consider another UN nuke agency visit

Syria's deputy foreign minister said Wednesday that Damascus would consider a request by the U.N. nuclear watchdog to revisit a site bombed by Israeli jets last year.

The official, Fayssal Mekdad, spoke to The Associated Press a day after diplomats at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna said freshly evaluated soil and air samples from the site provide enough evidence to push ahead with a U.N probe.

Israel bombed the Al Kibar site in Syria on suspicion it was a covert nuclear reactor _ a claim Syria denies. The U.S. has said the facility was a nearly completed reactor that, when on line, could produce plutonium, a pathway to nuclear arms.

Mekdad said Syria was still waiting for an official report on findings from IAEA's visit to the site in June.

Preliminary results made public from that visit were inconclusive, adding weight to Syrian assertions that no trips beyond the initial IAEA visit were necessary.

However, diplomats in Vienna told the AP on Tuesday that IAEA's final evaluation, completed a few days ago, has the agency convinced it needs to press on with its investigation.

"They should make a request and we will study it," Mekdad said.

But despite willingness to consider a request for a revisit, three other sites the IAEA has wanted to visit _ supposedly because they are linked to the bombed location _ will remain off limits because they are in restricted military areas, Mekdad said.

"There isn't a country in the world which allows inspections of its military sites," Mekdad added.

Still, his remarks were a turn from a Syrian statement two months ago that U.N. investigators were barred from revisiting Al Kibar.

Syria fears the IAEA probe could lead to a massive investigation similar to the probe Iran has been subjected to for more than five years _ and to related fallout. Iran is under three sets of U.N. sanctions because of its refusal to heed Security Council demands to curb its nuclear activities.