By Mark Heinrich
VIENNA (Reuters) - Syria told U.N. nuclear watchdoggovernors on Thursday it would cooperate with an investigationinto U.S. intelligence alleging it secretly built an atomicreactor with North Korean help, diplomats said.
The United States and Europe called on Syria to give U.N.investigators free access to check whatever they wanted afterDamascus signalled it would bar them from sites Washingtonbelieves could have been nuclear-related.
It was the first exchange on the Syrian nuclear issue bythe governing board of the International Atomic Energy Agencyahead of the IAEA mission to Syria from June 22 to 24.
Damascus has denied any covert nuclear activity. Washingtonsays the reactor, wrecked in an Israeli air raid lastSeptember, was designed to yield plutonium as fuel for atomicbombs.
Syria, a U.S. foe and an ally of Iran whose secretiveuranium enrichment programme has been under scrutiny since2003, has made no public comment on the IAEA mission butconfirmed its acquiescence to the governors' meeting in Vienna.
Diplomats there quoted Ibrahim Othman, Syria's atomicenergy agency head, as saying inspectors could check the remoteal-Kibar site where Washington says the reactor was close tocompletion before it was attacked by Israel.
"He said Syria had displayed transparency by agreeing tolet inspectors visit al-Kibar and had raised no obstacles,"said a diplomat who was in the closed meeting.
"He said they would leave it up to agency experts todiscover the truth, namely that the United States fabricatedthis evidence and such claims, if pressed, would endanger peaceand security in the Middle East," the diplomat told Reuters.
"The gist from (Othman) was that Syria would cooperate withthe IAEA," said a diplomat close to the Vienna-based agency.
Syria says Israel's target was a disused military building.
But analysts say satellite imagery since the bombing showthe al-Kibar site was razed and swept clean with a new buildingerected over it, possibly to purge traces of nuclear activity.
Inspectors fear the investigation may be handicapped byWashington's failure to put them on the trail before the sitewas bombed, several years after construction allegedly began.
LIMITS ON INSPECTOR MOVEMENTS?
Diplomats said Syria had rejected IAEA interest inexamining three other locations Washington believes containedfacilities for processing plutonium from fuel generated by thereactor.
They said Syria's stance was that the other sites weremilitary installations essential to national security and offlimits to the IAEA because they had no nuclear connection.
"Still, with serious allegations like these against Syria,expect the IAEA to keep pushing for access (later) to whateverplaces may be relevant to establishing the facts," said anothersenior diplomat familiar with the agency's approach.
The United States and European allies demanded on Thursdaythat Syria not crimp the IAEA investigation in any way.
"The EU is deeply concerned by information pointing to apossible undeclared nuclear facility in Syria," the EuropeanUnion said in a speech delivered by chairman Slovenia.
"We call on Syria to cooperate fully..., provide thenecessary information and give all the access requested."
U.S. Ambassador Gregory Schulte called for "pro-active"Syrian cooperation and said IAEA governors expected a report onfindings before their next regular meeting in September.
"Syria's obfuscations and concealment efforts raise manytroubling questions," he said.
U.S. intelligence given to the IAEA in April includedbefore-and-after aerial photographs of the alleged reactor anddetailed interior images of what it said were key components.
(Editing by Sami Aboudi)
