Iran moving to comply with extended nuclear deal with powers-IAEA

VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran is taking action to comply with the terms of an extended interim agreement with six world powers over its disputed atomic activities, a U.N. nuclear watchdog report obtained by Reuters on Friday showed. The findings in a monthly update by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) - though no major surprise - may be seen as positive by the West as negotiations resumed in New York this week on ending the decade-old nuclear stand-off. The IAEA document made clear that Iran is continuing to meet its commitments under the preliminary accord that it reached with the United States, France, Germany, Britain, China and Russia late last year and that took effect in January. In addition, as agreed when the deal was extended by four months in July, it is using some of its higher-grade enriched uranium in oxide form to produce fuel - a step that experts say would make it more difficult to use the material for any bombs. The IAEA is tasked with checking that Iran is living up to its part of the temporary agreement, which was designed to buy time for talks on a comprehensive settlement of the dispute that would dispel fears of a new Middle East war. Iran denies Western allegations that it has been working to develop a capability to make atomic bombs, saying it is refining uranium to fuel a planned network of nuclear power plants. After years of escalating tensions between Iran and the West, the election in mid-2013 of Hassan Rouhani, a pragmatist, as Iranian president on a platform of ending Tehran's international isolation created new room for diplomacy that ultimately led to last year's breakthrough nuclear deal. (Reporting by Fredrik Dahl; Editing by Louise Ireland)