Pakistan Saturday gave a guarded reaction to the International Atomic Energy Agency resolution for reporting Iran's nuclear issue to the United Nations Security Council, saying it welcomes the part of the motion which specifies that the nuclear watchdog would continue to make efforts to resolve the issue through diplomatic means.

Reacting to the IAEA resolution, Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson Tasnim Aslam told PTI in Islamabad that while Pakistan opposed referring Iran's nuclear issue to UNSC, it welcomed the part of the resolution that stated that efforts would continue to be made for resolving it through a diplomatic solution.

• The Iran vote and after

"Our stand is clear. We are not in favour of reference to UNSC and want it to be resolved within the IAEA framework," she said adding, Pakistan has taken note that the resolution has a provision for making efforts for a diplomatic solution.

Aslam said Pakistan has also taken note of the fact that the resolution said -- the issue was to be reported to UNSC and not referred. Reporting in diplomatic terms means that UNSC would only be informed while reference would have entailed the UN body to initiate action, she said.

She said Pakistan which has Iran as its neighbour felt that it would have been better had Tehran accepted the Russian offer to enrich the uranium for its civilian nuclear programme, but at the same time hoped that the issue would not be referred to UNSC for sanctions, which if adopted would become mandatory for all others to implement.