Iran in no rush to build new uranium plants

Iran said yesterday it was in no hurry to build new uranium enrichment plants, a key element of its controversial nuclear programme, and urged Western powers to accept a fuel deal brokered by Brazil and Turkey.

Vice-president and atomic chief Ali Akbar Salehi told state news agency IRNA that his organisation was still studying different locations for constructing new enrichment facilities.

"The locations will be finalised after ensuring that they meet the criteria set by us. We hope that by the end of this year a location will be fixed after taking all aspects into consideration," Salehi said.

"We are in no hurry in this regard. At the moment we are only identifying locations."

Salehi has previously said that new uranium plants would be located at sites which cannot be targeted by air strikes.

His statement yesterday indicated a step backwards by Iran, after a senior adviser to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on April 19 told ILNA news agency that the hardliner had approved locations for new uranium enrichment sites.

The "construction of these sites will start with his order," Mojtaba Samareh Hashemi had said, adding that the designs of the new plants were currently being studied.

Hashemi did not say how many new facilities had been approved by Ahmadinejad.

Earlier this year Salehi himself had said Iran would start work on two enrichment plants before the current Iranian year ends in March 2011.

Iran currently enriches uranium at the central city of Natanz and is building a second such facility near the Shiite shrine city of Qom.