Iran achieves uranium enrichmentIranian President Mahmoud...

Iran achieves uranium enrichment
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says Iran has joined the group of countries possessing nuclear technology and is determined to achieve industrial-scale uranium enrichment.

"I am officially announcing that Iran has joined the group of those countries which have nuclear technology," he said.

"This is the result of the Iranian nation's resistance."

He adds that the West must respect Iran's right to peaceful atomic technology.

"Based on international regulations, we will continue our path until we achieve production of industrial-scale enrichment," he said.

Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation head says Iran has enriched uranium to a level used in power plants, a major step forward in the country's nuclear program.

"I am proud to announce that we have started enriching uranium to the 3.5 per cent level," Gholamreza Aghazadeh said, adding that the pilot enrichment plant in Natanz, south of Tehran, was now working.

US condemnation

The US says Iran is "moving in the wrong direction".

White House spokesman Scott McClellan says Iran's announcement has heightened concerns in the international community about the country's nuclear program.

"If the regime continues to move in the direction that it is currently, then we will be talking about the way forward with the other members of the Security Council and Germany about how to address this going forward," he said.

Iran's announcement comes just 15 days before the expiration of a Security Council deadline for Iran to freeze its enrichment program, a process that can lead to production of the fissile core of an atomic bomb.

Iran insists it only wants to generate nuclear power and has so far rejected the ultimatum.

Western powers argue that Iran must be prevented from mastering this sensitive process, which even if for peaceful purposes would also deliver the country the technical know-how needed to make a nuclear weapon.

- AFP/Reuters

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200604/s1614227.htm