Iran has agreed to take seven practical, preliminary measures on nuclear cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) by May 15, it said in a joint statement with the UN nuclear watchdog on Sunday.

In a statement carried by the official Irna news agency and issued after two days of what were described as "constructive technical talks" in Tehran, Iran and the IAEA did not spell out what the measures were, but said full details of the planned steps would be reported to the governors of the UN agency by the watchdog's director-general.

The UN agency hopes to persuade Iran to finally start addressing suspicions that it may have researched how to build atomic bombs.

A diplomatic source in Vienna, where the IAEA is based, said one of the steps related to an investigation by the nuclear watchdog into possible military dimensions to Iran's nuclear activities, a potentially significant step forward as the probe has been deadlocked for years.

Tehran has rejected the accusations that is working to develop nuclear weapons as baseless and said it will cooperate with the IAEA to clear up any "ambiguities".

Behrouz Kamalvandi, a spokesman for Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, was quoted by Irna as saying: "Given the nature of the information provided in the spirit of cooperation, we expect that we will witness a positive report to the board of governors."

There was no immediate comment from the IAEA. - Reuters