Iran signals nuclear work expansion

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Iran signals nuclear work expansion

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By Parisa Hafezi and Fredrik Dahl

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran is now running 5,000 uranium enrichment

centrifuges, a senior official said on Wednesday, signaling an

expansion of work the West fears is aimed at making nuclear weapons.

The comments by the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization,

Gholamreza Aghazadeh, made clear once again that the Islamic Republic

has no intention of bowing to Western pressure to halt or freeze its

disputed nuclear program.

They also underlined the challenge facing U.S. President-elect Barack

Obama, who after his election victory this month called for an

international effort to stop Tehran developing a nuclear bomb, saying

it was " unacceptable. "

The number of centrifuges given by Aghazadeh was higher than a figure

of 3,800 such machines the U.N. nuclear agency cited in a November 19

report, which was based on a visit by its inspectors to Iran's Natanz

enrichment plant earlier in the month.

Iranian officials and the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy

Agency (IAEA) have also in the past differed in their estimates of

Iran's nuclear program.

" Now we have 5,000 running centrifuges, " Aghazadeh told the official

IRNA news agency. Deputy Foreign Minister Alireza Sheikh Attar in

August said Iran had 4,000 working centrifuges.

There was no immediate comment from IAEA officials.

Adding to tensions, Iran said on Wednesday it had launched a rocket

called Kavosh 2, or Explorer 2, the latest in a series of ballistics

tests that the West fears may form part of a bid to build missiles

that could carry atomic warheads in future.

Analysts believe Iran could be as little as one or two years from

enriching uranium to use in an atom bomb, if it so chose.

NO SUSPENSION

Iran, the world's fourth-largest crude producer, dismisses such

charges. It insists its nuclear program is aimed at generating

electricity so that it can export more oil and gas.

Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki criticized Britain's " wrong "

policies in the Middle East, after his British counterpart this week

said " the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran poses the most immediate

threat " to the region's stability.

Reacting to this and other comments by Britain's Miliband,

Iranian media quoted Mottaki as saying in reference to the outgoing

U.S. president: " ... it is better for Britain if it does not get on

board Bush's failed policy ship. "

Iran's refusal to stop enriching uranium, which can provide fuel for

nuclear power plants or material for bombs if refined much more, has

drawn three rounds of U.N. sanctions since 2006 as well as separate

U.S. measures.

Asked about an offer by major powers including Washington to hold off

on imposing more sanctions on Iran if it freezes further expansion of

its nuclear activities, Aghazadeh was quoted as saying by the ISNA

news agency:

" Suspension of nuclear enrichment is not in our vocabulary. "

Iran launched 3,000 centrifuges, a basis for industrial scale

enrichment, at Natanz in central Iran in 2007. But they are the 1970s-

vintage P1 design, prone to breakdown.

It said in April it had started installing 6,000 new centrifuges at

Natanz and testing a more advanced model.

" In the next five years we should install at least 50,000 machines, "

Aghazadeh said, referring to fuel production Iran says it needs for a

planned network of nuclear power plants.

The IAEA report earlier this month said that on top of the 3,800

centrifuges already enriching uranium another 2,200 were being

gradually introduced. It said Iran planned to start installing

another 3,000 centrifuges early next year.

But its figures showed Iran had not boosted the number of centrifuges

regularly refining uranium since September. The reason for Iran's

relatively slow progress was unclear, U.N. officials said at the time.

Aghazadeh also said Iran aimed to start electricity production at its

first nuclear power plant, the Russian-built Bushehr facility, in mid-

2009 and that it was making " good progress " with work on its Arak

heavy water facility.

Iran says the Arak complex will be used to make isotopes for medical

and agricultural ends. The West fears it is another part of a program

to make weapons.

(Additional reporting by Zahra Hosseinian, Writing by Fredrik Dahl

and Edmund Blair; Editing by Dominic )