IRAN:Iran has underlined its determination to press ahead with sensitive nuclear work despite Western opposition with a senior official saying it is capable of mass-producing machines used for enriching uranium.
Iran is embroiled in a deepening standoff with the West over its nuclear ambitions. Major powers suspect it is seeking to build bombs, but Tehran says it wants only to generate electricity so that it can export more of its oil and gas.
Iran said last month it could now make nuclear fuel on an industrial scale, a move that would take it closer to developing atomic weapons if it wanted to. Western experts expressed doubt about the announcement.
"One day Iran had problems to produce one centrifuge, but right now we have obtained the technology for mass production of centrifuges," Ali Akbar Velayati, international affairs adviser to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, told the Jomohouri Eslami newspaper.
Centrifuges, tubular devices that are tricky to calibrate, spin at supersonic speed to refine fuel for power plants or, if it is enriched to high levels, nuclear explosives.
It was believed to be the first time a senior aide of Khamenei, who has the final say on nuclear and other policies, has said it could make centrifuges on a large scale.
Iran aims to have 3,000 centrifuges running at its main enrichment plant, Natanz, by the end of this month. That could be enough to refine uranium for one bomb within a year.
Diplomats and analysts say Iran has not shown the ability to run them for long periods without breakdown, the key to producing nuclear fuel, and say it is at least three to eight years away from making enough enriched uranium for a bomb, if it wants one.
The United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany are due to meet in London next week to review Tehran's nuclear programme.
Senior officials are expected to discuss last week's talks between European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani in Turkey.
Iran has repeatedly said it would not give up its nuclear programme despite two sets of United Nations sanctions since December. Mr Velayati indicated that if it did so, major powers would just make other demands on Tehran.
"Maybe tomorrow they will have problems with the numbers of our army or Revolutionary Guards," he said. - (Reuters; additional reporting by Mark Heinrich in Vienna)