Iran not ‘pursuing nuclear weapons’

IRAN’S foreign ministry said on Sunday that Tehran would not give up its nuclear program, including uranium enrichment, despite international pressure to prove it is not developing atomic weapons.

"Abandoning peaceful nuclear activities or enrichment is not something Iran is ready to compromise on," foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told a weekly news conference.

It was the latest in a series of mixed messages from Tehran since a resolution by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) this month gave Iran until October 31 to prove it has no secret nuclear arms program and told it to halt enrichment activities.

IAEA inspectors are due in Tehran on Thursday for a round of further inspections and talks with Iranian officials.

If doubts remain in November about Iran's nuclear ambitions which Tehran insists are limited to generating electricity it may be reported to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.

Clerical hard-liners in Islamic Iran argue that Tehran should follow North Korea's example by pulling out of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), a move which would put its nuclear program firmly underground.

But officials from the reformist government have said that while Iran is not prepared to halt its nuclear program it will co-operate with the IAEA and is considering signing an additional protocol to the NPT which would allow snap inspections of nuclear sites.

"We are interested in solving the issue and we believe that negotiations should continue with the IAEA," Asefi said.

"If both sides talk transparently and answer some ambiguities naturally Iran's co-operation with the agency could bear good results," he said.

President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday urged Iran to give up any hopes of building nuclear weapons and to expand its co-operation with the IAEA.

Asked for Iran's response, Asefi said: "We are not pursuing nuclear weapons, we neither want to produce or use them. Our co-operation with the agency has been very transparent."

Diplomats told Reuters newsagency last week that IAEA inspectors had found traces of arms-grade uranium at a second site in Iran.

Asefi said that Iran had not been officially informed by the IAEA of the discovery at the Kalaye Electric Co facility in Tehran.

Iran says the highly-enriched uranium found at Kalaye and the uranium enrichment facility at Natanz in central Iran were due to contamination from imported equipment.

"It is clear that because some of these parts were imported they could be contaminated," Asefi said.

Diplomats are divided on whether Iran's contamination theory holds water.

IAEA chief Mohamed El Baradei said late last week that he hoped Iran would come clean about its nuclear activities by November.

"There are a lot of worrying signs, a lot of indications that Iran has been active in developing its nuclear program," he said in an interview on CNN Friday.

Asked if he thought Iran would meet the IAEA's October 31 deadline, he said: "I hope so. I hope at least that I will not be in a position to report that I'm not getting full co-operation and full transparency by Iran."