Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said on Thursday the Islamic Republic was ready to start talks on allowing snap U.N. inspections of its nuclear sites which Washington says are used to develop weapons.

The United Nations, the European Union, Russia and the United States have all urged Tehran to sign an Additional Protocol to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to allow U.N. inspectors more access to Iran's atomic energy sites.

But Tehran insists the international community should agree to allow Iran access to technology for what it says is its purely peaceful, civilian nuclear program before it signs.

"We have written to the director-general (of the International Atomic Energy Agency) saying we are ready to start negotiations on the Additional Protocol," Kharrazi told CNN from Japan.

The United States accuses Iran of developing nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian energy program and questions why Iran, OPEC's second biggest oil producer and with the second biggest gas reserves in the world, would want nuclear power.

The IAEA confirmed in a confidential report obtained by Reuters this week that Iran had stepped up cooperation with the U.N. watchdog agency, but said it still had questions about weapons-grade enriched uranium found at a site in Iran.

"It is true that inspectors have found traces of enriched uranium in Natanz," said Kharrazi. "But as a matter of fact that is because the components we have imported from outside have been contaminated."

Kharrazi said the IAEA was still investigating the source of the contamination.

"This is a technical matter, it should not be politicized," he said. "We do not have enriched uranium and we do not have a program to develop nuclear weapons."

Kharrazi was in Japan for talks on possible Japanese development of a large Iranian oil field.

Japan is trying to balance its desire to exploit the giant Azadegan field in southern Iran with U.S. pressure to back out because of concerns over Iran's nuclear program.

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