Iran stresses atomic peace

Arms experts said yesterday a UN nuclear watchdog report on Iran supported US claims Tehran had a secret atomic weapons programme, but President Mohammad Khatami insisted its nuclear policy was purely peaceful.

The former UN chief weapons inspector in Iraq, Hans Blix, said there was no direct evidence Iran was engaged in a civilian energy programme to make a nuclear bomb.

But in Washington, Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz said Iran's nuclear programme could reach "the point of no return" within a year unless there was strong international pressure to stop it.

The report by the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) criticised Iran's nuclear policy, but said there was no proof it had a weapons programme. The agency said it needed more time to establish whether its research was for peaceful purposes, as Iran said it was.

The confidential report, circulated on Monday, said Iran had had a centrifuge uranium enrichment programme for 18 years and a high-tech laser enrichment programme for 12 years, both of which it had hidden from the United Nations.

It also said Iran admitted producing small amounts of plutonium, useable in a bomb and with virtually no civilian uses, and had conducted secret tests of its enrichment centrifuges using nuclear material.

In Tehran, Mr Khatami said Tehran's nuclear plans were purely peaceful. "It's not important what machinery we have, it's important that we are not pursuing nuclear weapons," he said.

He was optimistic Iran would avoid being reported to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions despite the IAEA report, if its case was studied technically and legally, rather than in political terms.

But some arms experts said the report backed US claims of a secret nuclear weapons programme.

Diplomats have said the IAEA findings proved Iran, at the very least, developed the know-how to build nuclear weapons.

"The report is a stunning revelation of how far a country can get in making The Bomb, while pretending to comply with international inspections," said Gary Milhollin of the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control, a Washington-based think-tank. "This is a classic case of a bomb in the basement."