Iran envoy says no deal yet on length of nuclear accord with powers

Iran, currently in negotiations with six powers, had rebuffed as unacceptable comments by U.S. President Barack Obama that any accord should last at least a decade. Diplomats say 10 years would be viewed as a rather short deal.

"Certainly for the time being there is no agreement on the duration," the ambassador, Reza Najafi, told reporters after an IAEA board meeting in Vienna. He did not elaborate on how long any deal would have to be for Iran to accept it.

"Until now nobody can say when and how we can reach the comprehensive agreement," Najafi said, referring to an end-March deadline for an outline accord between Iran and big powers France, Britain, Russia, China, Germany and the United States.

Iran has been stalling a U.N. investigation into its nuclear program, which is designed to determine whether it has had any possible military dimensions (PMD). The United States urged Iran at the IAEA meeting to step up its cooperation.

Iranian officials will discuss two unresolved issues related to possible bomb research with the IAEA's deputy director general in Tehran on Monday, Najafi said.

Najafi again said that the IAEA has been using some flawed evidence in its investigation. He referred to a case related to a former CIA officer who was convicted in January of leaking classified information to a reporter about a failed U.S. effort to undermine Iran's nuclear program.

"(This) is now a very new decisive element on the resolution of the so-called PMD issues without which the final assessment is impossible," he said.

"From now on PMD should stand for predominantly manufactured dimension," Najafi told the IAEA governors, according to the text of his speech to the closed-door session.

The IAEA has said it carefully reviews information provided for its investigations and takes nothing at face value.

(Reporting by Shadia Nasralla and Michael Shields; Editing by Mark Heinrich)