Tehran: Iran has invited the United States to tender for the construction of its nuclear power plants in a bid to allay Washington's fears that Tehran is building a nuclear bomb.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi on June 3 dismissed US suspicions that Iran is enriching uranium to produce fuel suitable for building a nuclear bomb, reports 'The News'. "If the United States is really concerned (about Iran's nuclear programme), it can participate in the construction of nuclear power plants in our country," Asefi said.

"Under the former (the late Shah Muhammad Reza Pahlavi) regime, the United States offered to build nuclear power plants for Iran, and it knew Iran had oil. What has happened so that they are taking a different line now?" Asefi said. "Iran seeks the peaceful use of nuclear energy. Iran's concern is to develop the country economically and technologically. Nuclear weapons have no place in Iran's agenda."

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has visited the site where Iran is alleged to be enriching uranium and is due to issue a report in the coming weeks. Asefi also renewed Tehran's pre-conditions for joining the additional protocol of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), to which Iran is a party, asking Western companies to lift their sanctions against the country's nuclear programme.

"The additional protocol is a separate issue. It must be confirmed first how the sanctions have affected us, while we are a member of the NPT. They (Western countries) must help us achieve the nuclear know- how instead of putting restrictions," Asefi said.

ANI