VIENNA, April 17. /ITAR-TASS/. Iran has "diluted" half of its stockpile of weapons-potential higher-enriched uranium, news agency Associated Press quoted the United Nations nuclear agency IAEA as saying.

The UN International Atomic Energy Agency reported on Thursday in a confidential report obtained by Associated Press that the development left Tehran with substantially less of the 20% enriched uranium that it would need to build a weapon. Uranium at that level is only a technical step away from weapons-grade material, the report says.

"Diluting half of its 20% stockpile was among the Iranian commitments" under an interim agreement on Tehran's nuclear program reached between Iran and the Sextet of international mediators, the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and Germany in Geneva in November last year.