TEHRAN, Iran – The head of the U.N. nuclear agency pushed Monday for a breakthrough pact with Iran to resume inspections into suspected secret atomic weapons work and possibly set in motion further dealmaking when envoys from Tehran and world powers gather later this week in Baghdad.

The mission by International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano – his first to Iran since taking the post in 2009 – raised speculation about greater flexibility by Iranian officials as they struggle to balance the blows from Western sanctions and their insistence never to abandon the country’s nuclear program.

But any Iranian cooperation – including possibly opening up a military site to U.N. inspectors – will carry reciprocal demands that the West may consider reaching too far, too soon.