VIENNA, Austria — Iran has told the UN watchdog agency to remove surveillance cameras and agency seals by the end of next week and immediately cut back suspected nuclear site inspections, in response to referral to the UN Security Council, the agency said Monday.

Iran's demands came two days after the International Atomic Energy Agency reported Tehran to the council over its disputed atomic program.

In a confidential report to the IAEA's 35-member board, agency head Mohamed ElBaradei said Iran announced a sharp reduction in the number, and kinds, of inspections IAEA experts will be allowed, effective immediately.

The report, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, was dated Monday.

The moves were expected. Iranian officials had repeatedly warned they would stop honouring the so-called "Additional Protocol'' to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, an agreement giving IAEA inspectors greater inspecting authority, if the IAEA board referred their country to the Council.

A diplomat close to the Vienna-based IAEA told the AP that Iran had also moved forward on another threat: formally setting a date for resuming full-scale work on its uranium enrichment program. Iran says it wants to make fuel through enrichment, but the activity can also generate the nuclear core of warheads.

The diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to provide the information to reporters, refused to divulge the date set by Ali Larijani, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, in a letter received Monday by ElBaradei.

In Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Secretary General Kofi Annan said he was still hopeful that Iran will take confidence-building measures with the IAEA.

"It's not the end of the road,'' Annan said of the Security Council referral. "I hope that in between, Iran will take steps that will help create an environment and confidence-building measures that will bring the partners back to the negotiating table.''

In his brief report, ElBaradei cited E. Khalilipour, vice-president of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, as saying: "From the date of this letter, all voluntarily suspended non-legally binding measures including the provisions of the Additional Protocol and even beyond that will be suspended.''

Calling on the agency to sharply reduce the number of inspectors in Iran, Khalilipour added: "All the agency's containment and surveillance measures which were in place beyond the normal agency safeguards measures should be removed by mid-February 2006.''

Earlier, Russia's foreign minister warned against threatening Iran over its nuclear program after U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld reportedly agreed with a German interviewer that all options, including military response, remained on the table.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called for talks to continue with Tehran, adding: "I think that at the current stage, it is important not to make guesses about what will happen and even more important not to make threats.''

Lavrov said the use of force would be possible only if the United Nations consented.

Rumsfeld, in an interview with the German daily newspaper Handelsblatt, was asked if all options, including the military one, were on the table with Iran.

"That's right,'' Rumsfeld reportedly responded.

The Additional Protocol was signed by Iranian officials in 2003 as pressure intensified on Tehran to co-operate with IAEA inspectors probing more than 18 years of clandestine nuclear activities. But it was never ratified by parliament.

The protocol gives the agency inspecting powers beyond normal safeguards agreements linked to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Under safeguards, countries only have to open sites where there are declared nuclear materials. But with the protocol, inspectors can demand inspections on short notice of areas and programs that they suspect could be misused for weapons activity.

North Korea, the world's other major proliferation concern, unilaterally quit the Nonproliferation Treaty in January 2003, just a few months before U.S. officials announced that Pyongyang had told them it had nuclear weapons and may test, export or use them depending on U.S. actions.

Iranian officials have repeatedly said they will continue honouring the Nonproliferation Treaty. Still, the agreements linked to that treaty are insufficient for agency inspectors trying to establish whether Iran has had a secret nuclear arms program.

Unless Iran relents, the move to curtail voluntary co-operation means that ElBaradei will be stymied in trying to close the Iran nuclear file by March. And that could backfire on Tehran.

Russia and China agreed to Security Council referral on condition that the council take no action until March, when the IAEA board next meets. But if ElBaradei reports to that March 6 meeting that he was unable to make progress in establishing whether Iran constitutes a nuclear threat, the council will likely start to pressure Iran, launching a process that could end in UN economic or political sanctions.