Iran to start installing thousands of uranium centrifuges

Iran plans to start installing thousands of centrifuges in an underground facility next month, UN officials said in Switzerland today.

Such a move would pave the way to large-scale uranium enrichment, a potential way of making nuclear weapons.

The officials in Davos emphasised that Tehran had not officially said it would embark on the assembly of what will initially be 3,000 centrifuges at Natanz.

However, they said senior officials had informally told the International Atomic Energy Agency the work would start next month.