IRAN: Iran has dismissed US accusations that two nuclear plants it is building could be used to make secret nuclear weapons and said it already had invited UN inspectors to visit the sites.
"We don't have any hidden atomic activities. All our nuclear activities are for non-military fields," the Iranian government spokesman, Mr Abdollah Ramazanzadeh, told reporters.
He was responding to remarks by US officials claiming that two nuclear sites near the central Iranian towns of Natanz and Arak, seen in commercial satellite photographs, were of a type which suggested Iran could use them to build a nuclear weapon.
Iranian officials said the comments by the unnamed US officials amounted to "US propaganda" and insisted international bodies were well briefed on its nuclear programme.
The Vienna-based UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said it was aware of the facilities being built in Iran and planned to inspect them in February.
Iran invited IAEA inspectors after informing the agency in September of plans to build nuclear power plants and related fuel facilities over the next 20 years, an IAEA spokesman, Mr Mark Gwozdecky, said.
"The director general, with a team of technical experts, plans to make such a visit in February 2003," Mr Gwozdecky said. "We don't jump to conclusions. We will visit shortly and determine for ourselves what the facilities are."
Mr Ramazanzadeh said in Tehran that there was no obstacle for an IAEA inspection team to visit the sites.
"I cannot discuss the date because some expert work should be done regarding the date," he said. "We have always said that our activities for peaceful usage of nuclear energy could be inspected."
US officials, who declined to be named, on Thursday revealed their concerns about the sites in Iran.
"It is true that there are two suspicious facilities in those locations in Iran. They were first publicly identified by an Iranian opposition group this past summer. They certainly are worth looking into," they said.
But Mr Ramazanzadeh said the plants were not sinister, noting the one near Natanz was to conduct research into radioactivity.
The disclosure raised a new challenge for President Bush as he tries to head off North Korea's nuclear weapons programme as well as what Washington believes is an effort to develop nuclear weapons capability.
Mr Bush earlier this year labelled Iran, Iraq and North Korea an "axis of evil". The US and Iran have been foes since student militants seized the US embassy in Tehran during the 1979 Islamic revolution and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. Tehran has been developing a medium-range ballistic missile experts say would be able to hit Israel.
The US also has been at odds with Russia over its help in building a nuclear power plant at the south-western port of Bushehr, which Tehran expects to come on line next year. A senior Iranian government official said Iran was negotiating with Russia to build several other nuclear power plants as well as Bushehr. - (Reuters)