Iran designing new nuclear reactor

Iran is designing a new atomic research reactor in another snub to international efforts to curb the Islamic Republic's nuclear ambitions, officials in Tehran said today.

State TV's website quotes vice president and nuclear programme chief Ali Akbar Salehi as saying the new reactor will be more powerful than the ageing 5-megawatt US-made research reactor operating in Tehran that is used to make radioactive isotopes for medical purposes.

He added that Iran eventually plans to build four such reactors.

Tehran's first energy-producing reactor is scheduled to begin operations this summer.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said today he will soon announce new conditions for talks with the West.

But first, he wants to punish world powers for imposing the sanctions and to force them to "sit at the negotiating table like a polite child and talk to the Iranian nation".

The UN Security Council approved a new round of sanctions against Iran last week for its refusal to curb the country's nuclear programme, which the US and its allies suspect is aimed at producing weapons. Iran denies that.

Mr Ahmadinejad said Iran favours a dialogue with the West, but will announce its conditions soon. He said the carrot-and-stick approach does not work and Iran will not make "one iota of concessions" to the West.

"You showed bad temper, reneged on your promise and again resorted to devilish manners," he said of the powers that imposed sanctions. "We set conditions (for talks) so that, God willing, you'll be punished a bit and sit at the negotiating table like a polite child," he told a crowd during a visit to the central Iranian town of Shahr-e-Kord.

Mr Ahmadinejad also attacked the US, saying Iran needs to save Americans from "their undemocratic and bullying government". He charged there was no freedom in the US and newspapers in America were not authorised to write against the Zionists or hold rallies against the "crimes" committed by their government.

He was reacting to an invitation by the European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton to Iran's top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili to discuss the nuclear issue. At the same time, though, EU foreign ministers agreed on Monday to recommend additional sanctions over the nuclear issue.

The UN sanctions were imposed because of Iran's refusal to halt uranium enrichment, a process that can be used in both the production of nuclear fuel for power plants or nuclear weapons.

The punishments target the country's powerful Revolutionary Guard, its ballistic missile programme and nuclear-related investments.

Mr Ahmadinejad has dismissed the sanctions as "annoying flies" and as useless as a "used tissue".