Iran has appointed a new envoy for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), media reports said Sunday.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has appointed Ali-Asqar Soltanieh as the new IAEA envoy. He will replace Mohammad-Mehdi Akhoundzadeh, news agency ISNA said.

Soltanieh has previously been a senior member of the new Iranian nuclear delegation, ISNA said.

Unlike during the presidency of Mohammad Khatami, when the IAEA envoy was appointed from the foreign ministry, Ahmadinejad stipulated that the envoy must be from the Iranian Atomic Energy Organisation.

Foreign ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Assefi Sunday said Iran's right to pursue peaceful nuclear technology should top the agenda of the Dec 21 negotiations in Vienna with the European Union trio of Britain, France and Germany.

Assefi said Iran's future nuclear course depended on the outcome of the next nuclear negotiations and reiterated that Iran would not accept a discriminatory approach.

Iran has said it intends to continue with uranium conversion at Isfahan and also seriously start uranium enrichment in the neighbouring Natanz plant.