Foreign minister Kamal Kharrazi said on Wednesday that it was a good time for the visit to Iran of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Chief Mohamed Elbaradei.

Kharrazi told reporters after the cabinet meeting that Elbaradei exchanged views with Iranian officials about future Iran-IAEA programs.

'Iran and the IAEA agreed on an action plan which should be carried out by the next meeting between Iran and the agency and that Iran-IAEA relations should fall into normal track,' Kharrazi said.

`The action plan has three parties: Iran, IAEA and the Europeans.

'The international agency is keen on it and success will depend on cooperation of all the three parties,' he said.

'The agency is expected to fulfill its international obligation appropriately and not to allow the others to misuse the monitoring process.

For its part, Iran should also go ahead with close cooperation with the agency.

The Europeans should honor their commitments too to enable the action plan to succeed.

Otherwise, it will fail,` Kharrazi said.

Asked whether Elbaradei conveyed a warning to Iran, Kharrazi said that there was no warning and that the visit took place as per coordination.

`Iran has voluntarily suspended uranium enrichment and is free to resuming the work, because, it was done voluntarily and there had been no requirement in this respect,` he said.

`Suspension of uranium enrichment took place as a confidence building measure.

It is not something permanent and Iran is determined to take advantage of nuclear energy for civilian purpose,` Kharrazi said.

Responding to a question about the performance of European countries consistent with Tehran declaration signed on October 21 with German, British and French foreign ministers, he said they exercised satisfactory cooperation.

`Of course, it is a difficult work and we should not think that it is simple.

The atmosphere for cooperation has been contaminated with political goals,` he said.