The head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency said on Sunday that he was not concerned about Arab countries using nuclear energy for power development, despite international controversy over Iran's atomic programme.

All the Arab countries' nuclear activities will be under agency safeguard systems, so I don't see a reason why anybody should be concerned about, the Arab World, the Arab countries using nuclear energy for power development.

Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told reporters in Cairo after meeting with Arab League chief Amr Moussa.

The IAEA chief said Arab countries were not focused on the sensitive parts of the nuclear fuel cycle, which he argued should be under multi-national control.

ElBaradei also said that the IAEA was making progress resolving outstanding questions about the history of Iran's nuclear programme and called on Tehran to cooperate with the agency to clarify its present activities.

I hope again that Iran will continue to demonstrate full cooperation with the agency (IAEA) because the more we can clarify the past, have a good grasp on the present, the more we can help to build confidence about the future nuclear activities of Iran.

Iran has defied UN Security Council demands that it suspend uranium enrichment, a process that can produce fuel for a nuclear reactor or fissile material for a bomb.