Iran visa issue defused, smoothing atom pact talks

By Mark Heinrich

GENEVA, May 6 (Reuters) - Talks on how to save the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) were kept alive on Tuesday after Iran received assurances on U.S. visas for taking part in follow-up meetings in New York in 2009 and 2010.

Iran has been fighting Western allegations of secret atom bomb designs said to menace the NPT and there was fear it might hold up proceedings on remedies for the treaty in protest at uncertainty over access to future sessions in the United States.

The issue was resolved after back-room consultations involving a developing nation bloc, including Iran, and U.S. diplomats. The deal was announced to delegates by Ambassador Volodymyr Yelchenko of Ukraine, chairman of the two-week Geneva meeting which ends on Friday.

Iranian Ambassador Ali Asghar Soltanieh told Reuters:

"It wasn't perfect. But we opted to go along with this guarantee on the record, which reflected legitimate concerns of non-aligned countries, not just us but Cuba and Venezuela and others."

U.S.-Iranian relations have been hostile since Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution. Cuba and Venezuela are also U.S. adversaries and back Tehran in its standoff with world powers demanding it suspend its controversial uranium enrichment programme.

Iran says it wants nuclear energy only for electricity.

Political feuding between nuclear "haves" and "have nots" has stymied efforts to overhaul the four-decade-old treaty.