The panel of 21 passed a European Union-sponsored resolution 21-1 with 12 abstentions Saturday condemning Iran's "non-compliance" with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty because of its nuclear policies, but did not refer the matter to the U.N. Security Council.

However, a non-compliance finding usually means the matter is automatically referred the U.N. Security Council, but referral only comes only after IAEA Executive Director Mohammed ElBaradei reports it to the panel of 15, expected in November.

Tehran reeled from the 21-1-12 vote against it and those countries abstaining, including supporters China and Russia. Another supporter, India, working on a multi-billion dollar pipeline deal with Iran to help supply gas to India even voted for the measure.

"India's vote came as a great surprise to us," an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said Tuesday, the BBC reported. "We will consider our economic cooperation with those countries that voted against us."

The spokesman, Hamid Reza Asefi, according to the state news agency IRNA, added Iran looks forward to hearing India's explanation.

"After all, relations should be assessed in terms of mutual interests and if merely the interests of one side is taken into view, bilateral ties will lose their balance. In case of India, given our old amicable bonds, we will just wait to hear their explanation," he said.

He said no immediate decision had been taken on a course of action in reaction to the vote.

"Meanwhile, we are looking forward to the reaction of other states to the grave mistake made in the IAEA," said Asefi.

However, in India, a picture of compromise was being painted, according to the national newspaper The Hindu.

Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran Monday said India was successful in persuading the Britain, France and Germany, the European Union three or E-3, not to refer Iran immediately to the Security Council and allow time for discussions.

"Having got them (the E-3) to agree to what we wanted, then to say we will only abstain on the resolution would not have been the correct position for us to take," Saran said.

Asked whether India adopted a more pro-West foreign policy, he said, "I do not think that you should interpret India's position as being aligned on the left or on the right or aligned with this (or that) group of countries ... The question of this representing a shift in India's foreign policy does not arise."

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has complained of "nuclear discrimination" in the world, repeating it his nation's right to develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.

Given the history of Iran's nuclear program being developed for many years in secret, there remains suspicion it is attempting to develop weapons along with energy.

Monday night Ahmadinejad, according to IRNA, said, "Peoples of the world are subject to nuclear discrimination, as many countries possessing nuclear technology are seeking to monopolize this knowledge and deprive the rest of the world from this scientific capacity."

The agency also quoted him as saying the NPT gives all members of the United Nations the right to possess peaceful technology and a nuclear fuel cycle.

"Only those with bad and evil intentions have managed to raise Iran's nuclear program at the IAEA," he said, adding that Iran has not started enriching uranium "and that is why in the past 20 years Iran did not commit any violation of IAEA's resolutions."

But most of the rest of the world seems to see it differently.

ElBaradei called on Iran to work with the international community to provide assurances its program is for peaceful purposes after its previous treaty breaches were found to be within the competence of the Security Council.

"The ball now is with Iran to continue to cooperate with the agency as early as possible," ElBaradei said after the board found Iran in breach of its obligations under the NPT because of its concealing its activities over an extended period. Since the board did not immediately defer to the council, it gives ElBaradei time for diplomacy and negotiation.

"So all of us need to explore this window of opportunity, from now until November, to make sure that we are moving toward a comprehensive settlement of the Iranian nuclear issue," he told reporters at IAEA headquarters in Vienna.

"I was assured to hear Iran here saying that they would continue to cooperate with the agency," he added, calling on the nation to resume negotiations with the EU, which has been seeking a diplomatic solution for the past year.

Iran's nuclear program has been a matter of concern since 2003, when the IAEA found the country had for almost two decades concealed its nuclear activities in breach of the NPT.

Iran insisted the program was for peaceful energy production only but some countries, including the United States, said it was part of an effort to produce nuclear weapons.

In its resolution, the board found Iran's many failures and breaches of its obligations to comply with its NPT Safeguards constituted non compliance, adding "the resulting absence of confidence that Iran's nuclear program is exclusively for peaceful purposes have given rise to questions that are within the competence of the Security Council."

The White House was pleased.

"We appreciate the support," said spokesman Scott McClellan. "The world is saying to Iran that it is time to come clean."

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