The UN nuclear watchdog agency said today it was aware of new nuclear facilities under construction in Iran, which US officials said could be used to make weapons, and planned to inspect them in February.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said it had been talking with Iran since August about the facilities, which were made public by a CNN report this week, and had been invited by Tehran to inspect them.
Iran today dismissed US accusations that two nuclear sites under construction could be used to make a secret nuclear weapon.
"We don't have any hidden atomic activities. All our nuclear activities are for non-military fields," Iranian government spokesman Mr Abdollah Ramazanzadeh told reporters on the sidelines of a political conference in Tehran.
He was responding to remarks by US officials that two nuclear facilities 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.
But Tehran had pledged to put its nuclear programme under IAEA monitoring and invited the agency's inspectors to visit the construction sites.
Iran formally notified the IAEA in September of an ambitious plan to build capacity for 6,000 megawatts of nuclear power over the coming 20 years, including related fuel facilities.
Experts said even if the two new facilities turned out to be heavy water and fuel enrichment plants, that could point to a nuclear power programme just as well as to the development of nuclear weapons.
Iran is party to the non-proliferation treaty and has a verification agreement with the IAEA to safeguard against the diversion of civilian nuclear material for weapons.
The IAEA has a mandate to ensure nuclear facilities around the world are used solely for civilian purposes as well as coordinating global nuclear power safety.