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| Iran installing new uranium centrifuges, says IAEA | Iran installing new uranium centrifuges, says IAEA |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Iran has begun installing advanced centrifuge machines for enriching uranium at its nuclear plant at Natanz, says the UN's nuclear watchdog. | Iran has begun installing advanced centrifuge machines for enriching uranium at its nuclear plant at Natanz, says the UN's nuclear watchdog. |
| The IAEA said it suspected Iran may have also held explosives tests relevant to nuclear weapons. | The IAEA said it suspected Iran may have also held explosives tests relevant to nuclear weapons. |
| The step will concern world powers ahead of a resumption of talks with Tehran next week, analysts say. | The step will concern world powers ahead of a resumption of talks with Tehran next week, analysts say. |
| Tehran has denied the accusation, and says it is refining uranium only for peaceful energy purposes. | Tehran has denied the accusation, and says it is refining uranium only for peaceful energy purposes. |
| The Natanz facility, in central Iran, is at the heart of the country's dispute with the UN Security Council. | |
| The UN watchdog said the explosives tests had taken place at Parchin, a military base near Tehran, but its monitors were not allowed to visit the site during an inspection earlier this month. | |
| 'Further isolation' | |
| "The director general is unable to report any progress on the clarification of outstanding issues including those relating to possible military dimensions to Iran's nuclear programme," says the IAEA report, a copy of which was obtained by the BBC. | |
| It adds that despite intensified dialogue with Iran, no progress has been made on how to clear up the questions about Iran's nuclear work. | |
| Iran had informed the IAEA in a letter on 23 January that it planned to introduce a new model of centrifuge called the IR2m, which can enrich two or three times faster than current equipment. | |
| Gas centrifuges are used to increase the proportion of fissile uranium-235 atoms within uranium. For uranium to work in a nuclear reactor it must be enriched to contain 2-3% uranium-235 while weapons-grade uranium must contain 90% or more u-235. | |
| Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the new centrifuges could cut by a third the time Iran, one of Israel's fiercest opponents in the Middle East, needed to create a nuclear bomb. | |
| At the end of January, White House spokesman Jay Carney warned an Iranian upgrade would violate UN resolutions and "invite further isolation by the international community". | |
| At the diplomatic level, Iran is due to resume talks with six world powers in Kazakhstan on 26 February after a gap of eight months. | |
| The talks will involve the so-called P5+1 group - UN Security Council permanent members the UK, China, France, Russia and the US, plus Germany. | |
| Tehran welcomed an offer of bilateral negotiations from US Vice-President Joe Biden earlier this month but warned they had to be genuine and "fair". | |
| Mr Biden himself had said Iran needed to be "serious" on the issue. |