Monday, February 13 2006 15:27 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Tehran: Iran raised the stakes in the standoff with the international community over its nuclear activities today (Feb 13,2006), announcing it would resume uranium enrichment even before the UN atomic watchdog meets next month.

Asked whether Iran would wait for the International Atomic Energy Agency meeting on March 6 to resume industrial-scale enrichment, government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham told reporters "No, No."

The IAEA on February 4 voted to report Iran to the Security Council, but left a one-month window for diplomacy, for Iran to return to a full suspension of enrichment-related work and cooperate more with IAEA inspectors.

So far Iran has reacted by doing the opposite, setting the scene for a major showdown.

The Government spokesman also announced that talks between Tehran and Moscow aimed at finding a compromise by having Iranian uranium enriched on Russian soil would not go ahead as planned on Thursday.

The two sides had been set to develop Moscow's proposal for uranium enrichment which makes reactor fuel but can be extended to make the core of a nuclear weapon to be carried out on Russian soil.

"The negotiations have not been cancelled but the date for the talks is another matter," he said.

However, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak said Moscow was still expecting an Iranian delegation, adding. "Our offer for the 16th still stands."