VIENNA (AFP) — Iran is continuing to defy UN demands that it suspend uranium enrichment, the UN atomic watchdog said on Monday.
"Contrary to the decisions of the (UN) Security Council, Iran has not suspended its enrichment related activities," the International Atomic Energy Agency wrote in its latest report on Tehran's disputed nuclear drive.
According to the report, Iran is now operating close to 3,800 uranium gas centrifuges at its enrichment plant in Natanz, 200 more than in May when IAEA published its previous report.
Another so-called "cascade" of 164 machines was similarly up and running but was not being fed with uranium gas.
In addition, Iran was also testing different types of advanced centrifuges elsewhere at Natanz, the report said.
The total number therefore appears to coincide with comments made by Iran's deputy foreign minister Alireza Sheikh Attar last month when he said that "nearly 4,000" centrifuges were working in Natanz.
So far, the Natanz facility has produced a total of 480 kilogrammes (1,058 pounds) of low-enriched uranium or LEU, it said.
It would need 1,700 kilogrammes for a so-called "break-out scenario" in which Tehran would take the LEU and enrich it further for use in an atom bomb, a UN official said.
Enriched uranium is used to make fuel for nuclear power plants, but can also be used to make the fissile material for an atom bomb.
The United States and other Western countries are concerned that Iran is indeed covertly trying to develop a bomb, but Tehran vehemently rejects the charge, insisting its nuclear programme is geared solely towards energy generation.
Iran is under three sets of UN Security Council sanctions over its refusal to freeze enrichment and risks further sanctions for failing to give a clear response to an incentives package offered by six world powers in return for a halt to the sensitive work.
World powers offered to start pre-negotiations with Iran during which Tehran would add no more uranium-enriching centrifuges and in return face no further sanctions.
