Iran to continue enriching uranium

Iran will continue to enrich uranium, influential former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said yesterday, as concerns grow over possible US military action against Tehran's nuclear programme.

Iran announced last week it had enriched uranium for use in its power stations, stoking a diplomatic row with the West which suspects Tehran is trying to build an atomic bomb. Iran says it is seeking nuclear power to generate electricity.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran does not intend to stop," Mr Rafsanjani told reporters in Kuwait in answer to a question about uranium production.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says it cannot verify Iran's nuclear programme is entirely peaceful despite three years of probing but it has found no hard proof of efforts to build atomic weapons.

A team of IAEA inspectors would travel to Iran "within two days to try to remove ambiguities on Iran's nuclear issue" as agreed with IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei, Iran's semi-official Mehr news agency said, quoting an Iranian diplomat.

Mr Rafsanjani, speaking through an interpreter, said he did not believe the US would attack Iran.

"We are sure that America will not enter into such a predicament," he said. "But if (Iran) is subjected to aggression... then the war will have its consequences."

"Harm would not only engulf the Islamic Republic of Iran but the region and everybody."

Iran's Gulf neighbours have repeatedly expressed concern at its nuclear programme, saying they would be the first affected if anything goes wrong - whether a leak in a reactor or a military strike on nuclear facilities.

Mr Rafsanjani later told Iranian expatriates in Kuwait that Tehran's foes wanted to hammer a wedge between Iran and fellow Gulf states.

"We have to live together with our neighbours and not to let our enemies try to create differences between us," he said. "Countries of the region are our friends; they can use our progress in all fields," he added in remarks translated by an interpreter.

Iran's nuclear ambitions have added to tension in the Gulf region, which is already worried about instability in Iraq since the 2003 US-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein.