Iran-EU clash at start of NPT meeting

By Mark Heinrich

GENEVA, April 28 (Reuters) - Iran clashed with the EU on Monday over its nuclear programme, marring the start of global talks on how to salvage nuclear non-proliferation.

In opening statements at the start of a two-week gathering on the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the European Union and other western delegates cited Iran as symptomatic of the spread of technology which can be used to make atomic bombs.

The EU condemned Iran's defiance of U.N. resolutions demanding it suspend enrichment and pressed it to clarify intelligence reports that it secretly studied ways of building atom bombs in violation of the NPT.

"(This is) critical to an assessment of a possible military dimension to Iran's programme," Slovenian Ambassador Andrej Logar, speaking for the EU, told the meeting of some 120 states.

"The EU is resolved not to allow Iran to acquire military nuclear capabilities and to remove any proliferation risks posed by the Iranian nuclear programme," he