Vienna, March 8 (Reuters): The head of the UN atomic watchdog voiced “serious concern” today at omissions in Iran’s declarations about its nuclear activities and rejected a call from Tehran to drop investigations.

Mohamed ElBaradei singled out Tehran’s failure last October to mention that it had designs for advanced centrifuges capable of producing highly enriched uranium for use in a nuclear reactor or, potentially, an atomic weapon.

“I am seriously concerned that Iran’s October declaration did not include any reference to its possession of P2 centrifuge designs and related (research and development), which in my view was a setback to Iran’s stated policy of transparency,” he said.

He was addressing the board of governors of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as they began a closed-door meeting to consider how to proceed with Iran. Iranian ambassador Pirooz Hosseini said Tehran was the victim of a “war of propaganda”.