"I am extremely pleased with the reversal in the policy of the United States from one of confrontation to one of dialogue and mutual respect," International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed ElBaradei told reporters.

"I have been telling my Iranian colleagues that you must reciprocate and also put (out) your hand, and what we have been hearing from Iran is also quite different. There is a much more moderate tone.

"I am very optimistic of this totally new approach and I hope it will work."

However ElBaradei said Iran could take the initiative to further promote the apparent blossoming of goodwill by allowing IAEA inspectors to do more in Iran.

"They can... allow us to visit certain facilities that we want to visit, like the heavy water reactor. And they have to come up with their own ideas of how to build confidence," he said.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday welcomed the shift in US policy towards Tehran, describing it as "necessary" but added that he was awaiting "practical changes."

"We welcome this because in our opinion, change is necessary at the moment," he said in a press conference at a UN racism conference in Geneva.

"We are waiting for practical changes and we support a dialogue based on mutual respect and recognised principles of justice," he added.

After three decades of severed diplomatic ties, the Obama administration has called for dialogue with Tehran over its controversial nuclear drive, which Western powers fear could be a cover for efforts to build an atomic bomb.

Ahmadinejad said last week that Tehran would offer a new package to world powers for negotiations aimed at resolving the nuclear standoff, according to the official IRNA news agency.

However, in Geneva, Ahmadinejad later indicated that Iran would not budge from its demand for nuclear energy, as he condemned what he described as Iran's unjust treatment by Western countries for decades.

"The nuclear issue is one of those important issues, in our opinion it is a closed file," according to the English language interpretation of his remarks to the media.

"Iran is a signatory of the NPT (nuclear non-proliferation treaty) and a member of the IAEA and (we) expect to enjoy our rights within the framework of the agency," he added.

He said nuclear energy should not be equated with nuclear weapons and dismissed "deceitful tactics" by Western powers to monopolise nuclear energy.

Under the provisions of the NPT, Iran is allowed to have a civilian nuclear programme for peaceful use, under certain conditions.

In 2008, Iran suggested setting up consortiums -- including one in Iran -- to enrich uranium and manufacture nuclear fuel.

That offer followed proposals by global powers offering economic incentives to help Iran's civilian nuclear programme in return for a halt to enrichment activities.

Uranium enrichment is a process which makes nuclear fuel as well as the core of an atom bomb, and the West fears Iran is secretly trying to build nuclear weapons -- a charge repeatedly denied by Tehran.

ElBaradei was speaking to reporters in Beijing at the start of a three-day conference organised by the IAEA that gathers energy ministers or other representatives from more than 60 countries to discuss nuclear power's future.

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