VIENNA, Austria — America has asked the United Nations nuclear monitoring agency for a fuller accounting of its investigation of Syria’s alleged efforts to secretly develop a plutonium-producing facility at a site bombed by Israel.

A senior Syrian envoy in turn accused Washington of using “twisted logic” in pressuring his country instead of condemning the Israeli attack.

“When you shield the aggressor and when you accuse the victim it is … being not only an accessory to the crimes committed, but also encouraging more crimes,” Syrian Ambassador Mohammed Badi Khattab told the Associated Press yesterday.

He also urged the new American administration taking office next year to play a more active role in Turkish-mediated Syrian-Israeli efforts to reach a peace agreement.

“Without the U.S. being in the negotiations, there is no guarantee that what you agree upon will be implemented,” he said. Because America is “the only country that has this unique relationship with Israel, … [it] has the duty to influence its position in moving forward,” Mr. Khattab said.

America has hung back from directly engaging Syria, insisting it must stop support for Lebanon’s Hezbollah and other groups labeled by Washington as terrorists as part of any move into the mainstream fold.

Mr. Khattab is also his country’s chief delegate to the International Atomic Energy Agency. He spoke after American chief representative Gregory Schulte suggested his country was dissatisfied with a brief oral report on the status of an IAEA probe of allegations that Syria was working on covert nuclear program that included a nearly finished reactor bombed by Israel a year ago.

“Given the gravity of the issue … the United States looks forward to a comprehensive report … detailing, in writing, the status of the investigation” at the November meeting of the 35-nation IAEA board, Schulte told board members, in comments to the closed meeting made available to reporters.