Iran has not halted enrichment: IAEA

VIENNA (AFP) - Iran is continuing to defy UN demands that it suspend uranium enrichment, the UN atomic watchdog said on Monday.

"Contrary to the decisions of the (UN) Security Council, Iran has not suspended its enrichment related activities," the International Atomic Energy Agency wrote in its latest report on Tehran's disputed nuclear drive.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Monday that he remains confident Iran's close ally Syria will keep up the struggle against Israel despite its announcement of renewed peace negotiations.

"I am sure that the Syrian leadership will manage the situation with wisdom and will not abandon the front line until the complete removal of the Zionist threats," Ahmadinejad told visiting Syrian Defence Minister Hassan Turkmani.

"So far the cooperation between Iran and Syria in different areas has been beneficial for both sides and our defence ties should be expanded as far as possible," the official IRNA news agency quoted the president as saying.

Turkmani's visit is the first to Iran by a Syrian official since Syria and Israel announced last Wednesday that they had resumed indirect peace negotiations through Turkish mediators, ending an eight-year freeze.

Turkmani held talks on Sunday with his Iranian counterpart Mostafa Mohammad Najjar, during which the Iranian side underlined the importance of "collective security".

On Saturday, Syria rejected any preconditions to the new peace negotiations with Israel involving either breaking its three-decade alliance with Iran or its support for Lebanese and Palestinian militant groups.

Israeli officials have in the past conditioned any peace deal with Syria on its agreement to end both.

Iran does not recognise Israel and Ahmadinejad has drawn international condemnation by calling for the Jewish state to be wiped from the map.

Iran and Syria bolstered their alliance with a military cooperation agreement in 2006.