VIENNA - The U.N nuclear agency on Friday reported its second unexplained find of uranium particles at a Syrian nuclear site, in a probe launched by suspicions that a remote desert site hit by Israeli warplanes was a nearly finished plutonium producing reactor.

In a separate report, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Iran continued to expand its uranium enrichment program despite three sets of U.N. Security Council sanctions meant to pressure Tehran into freezing such activities.

And it said the growing pace of enrichment is causing it to review its inspection routine so that it can maintain oversight of the process.

Iran and Syria are under IAEA investigation - Tehran, since revelations more than six years ago of undeclared nuclear activities that could be used to make weapons, and Syria after Israel bombed a structure in 2006 said by the U.S. to be a reactor built with North Korean help.

But the agency has made little progress for over a year in both cases, and both of the restricted reports made available to The Associated Press on Friday essentially confirmed the status quo - stonewalling by both countries of the two separate IAEA probes.

Iran says its nuclear activities are peaceful; Damascus denies hiding any nuclear program.

"In order for the agency to complete its assessment, Syria needs to be more cooperative and transparent," said the IAEA in a document that detailed repeated attempts by agency inspectors to press for renewed inspections and documents - all turned down by Damascus.

Drawing heavily on language of previous reports, the Iran document said Tehran has not "cooperated with the agency ... which gives rise to concerns and which need to be clarified to exclude the possibility of military dimensions to Iran's nuclear program."

The report noted that Tehran continued to rebuff agency efforts to investigate suspicions the Islamic Republic had at least planned to make nuclear weapons.

Without cooperation by the Islamic Republic, the IAEA "will not be in a position to provide credible assurance about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran," the report said.

Syria and Iran are to come under renewed scrutiny when the 35-nation board of the agency meets June 15 to discuss the two reports.

While the Syrian report was prepared only for the board members, the one on Iran also was transmitted Friday to the Security Council, which for more than three years has tried to pressure Tehran to give up enrichment and other activities of concern.

Tehran says it is exercising its right to develop nuclear power in expanding its enrichment program. But the U.S. other great powers and dozens of additional countries fear Iran might at some point shift from producing low enriched uranium needed for nuclear fuel to making highly enriched matter suitable for use in the core of nuclear warheads.

The IAEA's Iran report reflected continued expansion both in the terms of the equipment in use or being set up and the amount of enriched uranium being turned out by those machines - centrifuges that spin uranium gas into enriched material.

Nearly 5,000 centrifuges were processing uranium gas at the Natanz facility as of May 31, said the report, while more than 2,000 others were ready for operation. More than nearly 3,000 pounds - 1,300 kilograms - of low enriched uranium had been produced as of that date, said the more than four-page report.

That compares to just over 2,220 pounds (1,000 kilograms) mentioned in the last IAEA report in February an amount that experts and U.S. officials subsequently said was enough to process into enough weapons grade uranium for a nuclear warhead.

Commenting on the Iran report, the Washington based Institute for Science and International Security said that at the present pace of production of enriched uranium, Tehran could make two nuclear weapons - should it choose to do so - within eight months.

The report said inspectors have told Tehran that "given the increased number of ... (centrifuges) being installed and the increased rate of production ... improvements to the containment and surveillance measures" are needed. A senior U.N official said the IAEA was considering redirecting surveillance equipment and asking Iranian nuclear staff to change their "walking routes" through the underground Natanz facility as part of the changes. He demanded anonymity in exchange for commenting on the confidential report.

Reversing the previous U.S. stance, the Obama administration has said it is ready to talk one-on-one with Iranian officials on the nuclear issue. Obama himself has said Tehran has the right to benefit from nuclear power - as long as all proliferation concerns are put to rest.

But President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly said his country will not negotiate on its right to enrichment.

On Syria, the agency said the newest traces of uranium were found after months of analysis in environmental samples taken last year of a small experimental reactor in Damascus.

It already reported a similar finding in February at a separate site - at or near the building bombed by Israel more than two years ago.

As in the case of the earlier find, the uranium particles "are of a type not included in Syria's declared inventory of nuclear material," said the report, saying their origin and potential significance still "needs to be understood."

It also said Syria continued to deny cooperation with North Korea in building its nuclear program.


By GEORGE JAHN     Associated Press WriterSEOUL, South Korea - South Korea braced Friday for a possible third nuclear test by North Korea, which a U.S. official said might occur despite looming U.N. sanctions on the communist state for its previous test in May.

Given the North's track record of provocative behavior and defiance of the United Nations, "common sense" indicates that it is preparing for another nuclear test, South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Won Tae-jae said Friday.

"Recently, we have braced ourselves against all predictable possibilities regarding nuclear or missile situations," Won said.

However, South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted an unidentified intelligence official as saying there was no immediate indication that North Korea was restoring a test site where its second underground blast took place on May 25.

In Washington, a U.S. official said late Thursday that North Korea may be preparing for a third nuclear test. The counterproliferation official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss the unreleased information, would not provide details regarding the assessment.

A third nuclear test would likely alienate North Korea further from its allies China and Russia, which have agreed with Western nations on imposing new U.N. sanctions to curb the North's weapons exports and financial dealings They would also allow inspections of suspect cargo in ports and on the high seas.

The U.N. Security Council was expected to approve a draft of the sanctions document later Friday. North Korea has threatened to retaliate if the sanctions are approved.

North Korea's reclusive regime has defied the international community to push ahead with its nuclear program, which it describes as a deterrent against possible U.S. attacks.

Washington says it has no intention to attack and expresses fears that North Korea is trying to sell its nuclear technology to other nations.

South Korea has dispatched hundreds of marines to two islands near its disputed sea border with North Korea as a precaution against any possible provocation by the North, officials said. The disputed waters were the scene of deadly naval skirmishes in 1999 and 2002.

The officials said, however, that there were no signs of provocation. They spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the issue's sensitivity.

North Korea - which conducted its first underground nuclear test in 2006 - has been escalating its standoff with the United States and South Korea in recent months as its ailing leader Kim Jong Il reportedly prepares to hand over power to his third and youngest son Jong Un.

South Korea's mass-circulation JoongAng Ilbo newspaper reported Friday that the North has given Jong Un a title that translates roughly as "Brilliant Comrade," citing a meeting this week in Seoul between South Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities.

An unidentified intelligence official quoted by the newspaper said the title means the North will engineer a cult of personality for the junior Kim - much like his father and grandfather - as a "wise leader."

Earlier this week, North Korea's main newspaper Rodong Sinmun said in an editorial that an important issue concerning the nation's fate and its revolution had been resolved.

Cheong Seong-chang of the Sejong Institute think tank outside Seoul said this was an apparent reference to a power transfer.

"It indicates that North Korea has resolved the succession issue," he said.

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Associated Press writers Pamela Hess and Foster Klug in Washington, Vijay Joshi in Seoul and Shino Yuasa in Tokyo contributed to this report.


By KWANG-TAE KIM     Associated Press WriterHamas female suiciders captured on way to kill Palestinian officers
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report

09 June: Hamas is escalating its attacks on fellow Palestinians to defeat US presidential envoy George Mitchell's peace talks in the region, starting Tuesday, June 9, so long as Hamas and Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah were at war. DEBKAfile's counter terror sources disclose that Monday night, three female Hamas members, one wearing a bomb vest, were captured in the West Bank town of Qalqilya on their way to kill Palestinian Authority security officers.

The reappearance of suicide bombers on the West Bank is extremely troubling, say military sources, because of the likelihood that they will next turn against their old targets in Israel.

Ahead of its foiled triple suicide attack, Hamas circulated the photos of six senior Palestinian security officers in Qalqilya over the caption: "These commanders are sentenced to execution."

Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshaal refused point blank to call off Hamas' terror campaign or give the Obama peace initiative a chance when summoned from Damascus to Cairo by Egypt's intelligence minister Gen. Omar Suleiman.

First, he said, the US-trained Palestinian Authority security force must end its crackdown on Hamas gunmen on the West Bank. Shortly after his conversation with Gen. Suleiman in Cairo, Hamas staged its first ever Qassam missile strike on Egyptian security forces guarding the Sinai-Gazan border.