Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, speaks to media after talks between Iran and the United States, Russia and France over Iran's nuclear program on Wednesday at Vienna's International Centre. (Hans Punz/Associated Press)Iran has agreed to a draft deal on its nuclear program, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Wednesday, and diplomats say it has the Islamic Republic shipping most of its enriched uranium to Russia.

IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said representatives from Iran, Russia, the U.S. and France have signed off on the draft deal after talks held in Vienna this week. ElBaradei said he hoped the respective leaders of the countries involved would approve the deal by Friday.

"Everybody who participated at the meeting was trying to look at the future, not at the past, trying to heal the wounds," ElBaradei said.

"I very much hope that people see the big picture, see that this agreement could open the way for a complete normalization of relations between Iran and the International community."

ElBaradei did not provide further details.

Deal needs state approval: Iran official

Iran's chief delegate, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, said that while his side has accepted the draft, senior officials in Tehran would need to approve it.

"We have to thoroughly study this text and also [need] further elaboration in capitals," Soltanieh told reporters.

A diplomat inside the closed meeting told The Associated Press the draft deal includes the export of most of Iran's low-enriched uranium, taking away most of the material needed to potentially make a nuclear weapon.

Iran has claimed its nuclear facilities are for energy purposes, and has previously balked at shipping most of its low-enriched uranium abroad, saying it needs it for nuclear fuel.

A worker is shown at the Fuel Manufacturing plant at Isfahan Uranium Conversion Facility, 440 kilometres south of Tehran, on April 9. It's one of two facilities the international community is concerned could be used to produce enriched uranium for nuclear weapons. (Caren Firouz/Reuters)

But the international community was expected to press for the export of the nuclear material, as even low-enriched uranium could be used to make the fissile core of nuclear warheads.

An agreement first discussed on Oct. 1 after talks in Geneva called for Russia to help enrich uranium for Iran and then send it to France for conversion into metal fuel rods to fuel a small research reactor in Tehran.

It is not known what role, if any, France has under the new draft agreement, though there were reports Tuesday that Iran had issues with France's involvement because of side issues involving a French nuclear reactor Iran holds a stake in.

Iran is under three sets of sanctions for continuing its nuclear program and failing to allow UN inspectors to investigate its nuclear facilities. Western powers had discussed a fourth set of sanctions after it was revealed in September that the country had begun work on a second uranium enrichment plant.

The major issue of the talks is how much of Iran's estimated stockpile of low-enriched uranium it is willing to turn over as part of the agreement. The Geneva talks put the tentative quantity at 1,200 kilograms, or as much as 75 per cent of Iran's declared stockpile.

If the Geneva conditions hold, it would be significant because 1,000 kilograms is the commonly accepted threshold of low-enriched uranium needed for production of weapons-grade uranium enriched to levels above 90 per cent.

Based on the Iranian stockpile, the U.S. has estimated Tehran could produce a nuclear weapon between 2010 and 2015.

With files from The Associated Press