The next round of talks between Iran and six world powers on the country’s nuclear program will be held in Istanbul, Iran’s foreign minister said today.

Iran is poised to greatly expand uranium enrichment at a fortified underground bunker to a point that would boost how quickly it could make nuclear warheads, diplomats said.

Iran has expanded the tunnels it uses to hide a major part of its nuclear weapons programme to a network covering a large area of south-eastern Tehran, an Iranian exile who opposes that nation’s Islamic government said.

Defying the world, Iran revealed today it has begun converting a second batch of uranium into gas, a step that brings it closer to producing the enriched uranium used in either nuclear reactors or bombs.

IRAN, under heavy US-led pressure to curb its nuclear programme, has opened a high-security military site to UN nuclear inspectors who also met senior personnel at the facility.

Iran, under heavy US-led pressure to curb its nuclear programme, has opened a high-security military site to UN nuclear inspectors who also met senior personnel at the facility, an Iranian official said today.

Iran has granted UN nuclear inspectors access to a high-security military site as part of efforts to avoid being brought before the UN Security Council, diplomats said today.

The US accused Iran of “cynically” pursuing nuclear weapons today, saying Tehran’s claims that its aims were peaceful constituted wilful deceit of the world.

The US expressed alarm today about a possible Iranian nuclear weapons related test site and accused the UN nuclear watchdog agency of keeping silent on its own concerns about the issue.