'Iran to enrich uranium to a higher level itself'

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said yesterday Iran would enrich uranium to a higher level itself, apparently ruling out a UN-brokered deal meant to minimise the risk of Tehran producing material for atomic bombs.

Western diplomats said Iran accepted in principle two months ago a plan for it to send 75 per cent of its low-enriched uranium (LEU) to Russia and France to be further enriched, then converted into fuel for Iran's nuclear medicine programme.

The West hoped that farming out much of Iran's LEU reserve for this humanitarian purpose would minimise the risk of Tehran refining the material to high purity suitable for nuclear arms - a suspicion kindled by Iran's record of nuclear secrecy and stonewalling of UN atomic watchdog investigations.

But Tehran has since retreated from the deal, demanding what Western diplomats call killer amendments that would keep its LEU stockpile intact. Some Iranian officials suggested Iran could enrich the LEU itself from 3.5 per cent to the 20 per cent level needed to yield fuel rods for Iran's medical isotope reactor.

Mr Ahmadinejad was more explicit. "By the grace of God, the Iranian nation will produce 20 per cent enriched uranium and anything it needs (itself)," he said in a televised speech in the central city of Isfahan. He did not give a timetable.

If it goes ahead, Iran may stoke suspicions that its eventual nuclear goal is warheads, since it lacks the technology to fabricate medical reactor fuel from higher-grade LEU. For atom bombs, uranium must be enriched to 90 per cent purity.

Iran could be enriching to 20 per cent "within months" after changing the settings of its centrifuge machines, said David Albright, head of the Institute for Science and International Security, which tracks suspected nuclear proliferators.

"Once at 20 per cent, they'd be 90 per cent of the way to 90 per cent enrichment in terms of the time it takes," he said.

"Meanwhile, for (the sake of) legitimacy, they'll say they are developing technology for the reactor fuel line. But concerns will rise since they will continue to stockpile LEU, and perhaps siphon some of it off for the civilian reactor."

Iran has become more defiant of pressure for nuclear restraint since the International Atomic Energy Agency's board of governors rebuked it on Friday for covertly building a second enrichment plant near the holy city of Qom, in addition to its IAEA-monitored one at Natanz, and demanding a construction halt.

Mr Ahmadinejad ruled out any further talks with the six powers, that have sought to try to rein in Iran's nuclear programme in exchange for trade benefits.