Samples taken at Iran military site

Iran yesterday said it recently collected samples at a military site where illicit nuclear work is alleged to have occurred and handed them to UN monitors who were not present.

The disclosure is likely to anger critics of the nuclear deal Iran struck with world powers in July, who have poured scorn on measures put in place to verify that the Islamic republic's atomic programme is peaceful.

It also drew a quick reaction from the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), whose chief said that "the integrity of the sampling process and the authenticity of the samples" was not compromised.

The samples, on which no details were given, were taken under "established procedures", IAEA director general Yukiya Amano said, noting that "significant progress" was being made in its long-running probe that Iran had sought to develop nuclear weapons in the past.

The site at Parchin has been at the centre of international scepticism of Iran's activities, specifically that as late as 2003 it carried out work there aimed at building an atomic bomb.