Vienna, Austria ? Pressured even by its allies, Iran on Tuesday accepted a compromise on the agenda text of a 130-nation nuclear conference, clearing the way to resolve a weeklong deadlock that threatened to end the gathering.

The meeting – like others to be convened annually – is meant to prepare the ground for senior policy makers at a follow-up conference in 2010 that will try to make the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty more effective. As such, it has no decision-making powers.

Still, its failure would have damaged the chances of progress at subsequent meetings, and at the 2010 conference, by hardening opposing fronts and making consensus decision-making even more difficult.

Iran’s decision allowed Tehran to deflect criticism that it was prepared to see the meeting end in failure rather than be targeted for its defiance of U.N. Security Council demands that it mothball its uranium enrichment program.

Instead, the Iranians appeared to be hoping that their decision to give in would put them in the role of saving the meeting from ending without any substantial progress.

And if their stonewalling since the gathering opened April 30 was an effort to stifle criticism, they appeared to have gone a ways in achieving their goal. As of Friday, the conference had only three full days until its scheduled end to focus on anything other than bickering over the agenda.

The issue stalling the meeting had been Tehran’s refusal to accept a phrase calling for the “need for full compliance with” the nonproliferation treaty.