"I was informed this morning by the Iranian authorities that a new date for the next round of IAEA inspections would be 27 March, 2004.
Although the delay is regrettable, it is nonetheless still within our time schedule for conducting inspections.
I hope and trust there will be no future delay with respect to any future inspections in Iran.
It is clearly in the interest of Iran to cooperate fully with the IAEA and adopt a policy of proactive cooperation so that the IAEA can clarify outstanding issues as early as possible."