"He doesn't want to move the date up all of a sudden. He wouldn't have the information he needs sooner and also he wants to give the Iranians due process," as he had told the Iranians they would have until March to comply, a Western diplomat said. ElBaradei's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) holds its next regularly scheduled meeting on March 6 but an emergency session of the IAEA's Board of Governors has been called for February 2, after Iran moved to begin previously suspended work on nuclear fuel that can be used for nuclear energy but can also be bomb material. The head of the IAEA is preparing a "detailed" report on Iran's compliance in answering crucial questions about its nuclear program that the nuclear watchdog has been investigating for three years. Iran triggered the crisis when on January 10 it removed the seals on sensitive equipment used to enrich uranium, amidst Western fears it is secretly developing nuclear weapons. The European Union's three main powers -- Britain, France and Germany -- called next month's emergency meeting to refer Iran to the UN Security Council, which could impose sanctions to force Iranian compliance. The trio has asked ElBaradei to issue his full report for the February meeting but he has refused, saying this would not give Iran enough time, diplomats said. ElBaradei said Iran should be given "until March," a second diplomat said. The diplomat said ElBaradei has in fact been talking tough with Iran and told them that if they did not comply "he could not go any further and the international community could not go any further" in tolerating their nuclear program. Iran says its nuclear program is a peaceful effort to generate electricity but the United States alleges it is hiding covert work on atomic weapons. While the U.S. and the EU want to take Iran to the Security Council, Russia and China, which have strong trade ties with Iran, want to give Tehran more time. A diplomat close to the IAEA said Russia wanted to split the action into two parts, "with a nominal referral in February but giving Iran one month to deliver on demands to suspend nuclear fuel work and to cooperate with the IAEA." But a second Western diplomat said the U.S. and European states "rejected this idea outright." The first Western diplomat said ElBaradei will "very possibly provide an update to the February board and could provide some general information on other issues, but the detailed report will only be for March 6." "ElBaradei has told the Iranians he's going to provide a detailed report on the main outstanding issues and if Iran has not complied by then, he is going to report that he is not making progress," the diplomat said. The outstanding issues concern two offers Iran received in 1987 and in the mid-1990's from a nuclear black market for nuclear technology, along with IAEA demands to visit military sites Lavizan and Parchin and IAEA requests for information on dual-use equipment that could be used for weapons purposes. PIN/AFP