Iran declares major breakthroughs in nuclear drive

TEHRAN: Iran declared on Thursday major advances in its controversial atomic drive as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad opened a nuclear fuel plant and announced the testing of two high capacity centrifuges.

Ahmadinejad's announcements at a function in Isfahan province marking national nuclear day are likely to trigger fresh concerns among world powers, who fear Iran's nuclear programme is aimed at making atomic weapons, but Washington's first reactions were skeptical.

Tehran insists its programme is for peaceful purposes only.

Ahmadinejad said Iran has notched up two achievements -- the manufacture of nuclear fuel and "testing of two kinds of new centrifuges having greater capacity (to enrich uranium) than the existing ones."

He was speaking after cutting the ribbon at the fuel facility in Isfahan, which the Mehr news agency said can produce 10 tonnes of nuclear fuel annually to feed the heavy water 40-megawatt Arak reactor and 30 tonnes for light water reactors such as the Bushehr nuclear plant.

The fuel for Bushehr has to meet Russian technical specifications, as the plant has been constructed by Moscow and will be initially operated by Russian engineers.

The opening of the fuel plant indicates that Iran has mastered the complete nuclear fuel cycle from uranium mining to enrichment, even as world powers urge the Islamic republic to halt its programme completely.

"Today the nuclear fuel cycle has been practically completed and there is no room for the idea of halting (uranium) enrichment in the negotiations" with global powers, the head of Iran's parliamentary commission of national security and foreign policy, Alaeddin Borujerdi, said after the plant was opened.

Speaking at the same function as Ahmadinejad, atomic chief Gholam Reza Aghazadeh said Iran has reached a "new phase of acquiring the technolgy of uranium enrichment." "Today in Natanz there are around 7,000 centrifuges installed," he said of the uranium enrichment facility in Isfahan province. On February 25, he said Iran had 6,000 centrifuges installed there.

In its February 19 report, the International Atomic Energy Agency said 3,964 centrifuges were actively enriching uranium in Natanz.

The UN body said another 1,476 were undergoing vacuum or dry run tests without nuclear material and 125 had been installed but remained stationary.

Uranium enrichment is at the heart of global fears that Iran is secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons, because the process can be used both to make nuclear fuel and the fissile core of an atom bomb.

World powers are concerned that Iran could configure the Arak plant in such a way that it can be used to help make an atom bomb, but Tehran says the reactor is planned to make isotopes only for agricultural and health purposes.

Commenting on Thursday's news, State Department spokesman Robert Wood said "I think we certainly could view it with skepticism."

"Iran has in the past, you know, announced that it is -- it was running a certain number of centrifuges that didn't really pan out with regard to the IAEA's own estimate.

"So it's not clear."

Iran is in defiance of five UN Security Council resolutions calling for a freeze of enrichment, including three resolutions imposing sanctions.

On Wednesday, in a bid to defuse tensions, six world powers led by Washington invited Iran for direct talks on the programme.

In a joint statement, the United States, Britain, Russia, China, France, and Germany said EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana has been tasked to invite Iran for direct talks on its nuclear plans.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Washington will participate fully in the talks.

"There's nothing more important than trying to convince Iran to cease its effort to obtain nuclear weapons," Clinton said.

And Wood reiterated that Washington would seek to engage with Iran "without preconditions" even as "concerns remain" about Iran's nuclear aims.

During his speech Ahmadinejad said the talks should be based on mutual respect.

"No free man will accept one-sided or conditional talks under intimidatory atmosphere," he said.

"The Iranian nation has always been ready for talks. We welcome change ... We think the time for big change has come."

Earlier Thursday, presidential advisor Ali Akbar Javanfekr said Tehran will study the "constructive proposal" from the six world powers which "shows a change of approach" by them.

"We hope that this proposal means a change of approach to a more realistic attitude. The Islamic Republic of Iran will examine (it) and give its response."

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