Iran arrests former nuclear negotiator

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian authorities arrested a former nuclear negotiator "for security reasons", the official IRNA news agency said on Wednesday.

Hossein Mousavian, considered a moderate conservative by analysts, was a member of Iran's nuclear negotiating team with the European Union and head of the foreign policy committee on the Supreme National Security Council.

Like most other members of the team, he was replaced by more hardline officials when President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took office in 2005.

"Mousavian has been arrested for security reasons," IRNA quoted an "unofficial source" as saying. "Mousavian was arrested on Monday in his house in Tehran."

The ILNA news agency earlier said the reason for his arrest and charges against him had not been announced. Mousavian's office declined to comment.

During the 2005 presidential race, Ahmadinejad said Iran's nuclear negotiators had been too timid, although after his election win Iran continued talks with the EU to find a diplomatic solution to its nuclear dispute.

Iran denies the West's accusations that it wants to use its nuclear programme to make bombs and says its atomic ambitions are limited to generating electricity.

The United Nations has imposed two sets of sanctions on Iran over its refusal to stop its sensitive uranium enrichment work.