New York: Stoking US concerns that Tehran is making progress in developing a nuclear weapons programme, Iran moved closer to operation of an advanced facility to enrich uranium, according to media reports.

Even as war in Iraq is looming and North Korea defiantly pursuing its own nuclear programme, Iran's nuclear programme development has become so advanced that it puts the country in "blatant violation" of Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to which it is a signatory, a 'Time' magazine report said quoting diplomatic sources.

On a visit last month to Tehran, International Atomic Energy Agency director Mohamed ElBaradei said he discovered that Iran was constructing a facility to enrich uranium - a key component of advanced nuclear weapons - near Natanz.

The sources were quoted as saying that work on the plant is "extremely advanced" and involves "hundreds" of gas centrifuges ready to produce enriched uranium and "the parts for a thousand others ready to be assembled".

Iran announced last week that it intends to activate a uranium conversion facility near Isfahan (under IAEA safeguards), a step that produces the uranium hexafluoride gas used in the enrichment process.

Sources told 'Time' that the IAEA has concluded that Iran actually introduced uranium hexafluoride gas into some centrifuges at an undisclosed location to test their ability to work. That would be a blatant violation of the Nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty, 'Time' said.

Though the IAEA declined to comment, a senior US State Department official told the magazine that he believed ElBaradei was trying to resolve the issue behind the scenes before going public.

PTI