Saturday, June 10 2006 12:32 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Tehran: Iran today (June 10,2006) insisted it would not stop enriching uranium as world leaders warned the Islamic republic to halt the sensitive nuclear activity within weeks or face the consequences.

US President George W Bush said Iran had 'Weeks, not months' to agree to freeze enrichment which can be used to make reactor fuel or manufacture a nuclear weapon or face UN Security Council punishment.

His comments came as a cleric close to Iran's supreme leader said Tehran would not suspend its nuclear programme of uranium enrichment, a day after the UN nuclear watchdog said it had actually accelerated the sensitive work.

"We must have uranium enrichment between 3.5 to 5 cent and they have to accept it," Ayatollah Ahmad Janati told worshippers at Friday prayers in the capital.

An Iranian official, quoted by the student news agency ISNA, confirmed the accelerated activity.

"Iran has started another stage of injecting hexafluoride gas into centrifuge machines," he said.

"Iran is also pursuing a plan to have a 3,000- centrifuge cascade by the end of the current year (March 2007)," said the official, adding that all the material used in uranium enrichment facilities has been produced domestically.

Tehran has already announced enrichment to a level of 4.8 per cent, sufficient to produce reactor fuel. Iran says it only wants to enrich to make fuel. When highly refined, the process can also be used to make nuclear weapons.

Iran considers uranium enrichment to be its right under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). But Western powers, who suspect Iran's nuclear programme has military ambitions, want it to suspend the practice.





Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has not yet responded publicly to the offer from the permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany, aimed at pushing Tehran to suspend uranium enrichment.

But world leaders were quick to warn Tehran that it only had a few weeks to respond to the offer, which also includes a number of incentives for its nuclear programme and industry as part of a 'carrot and stick' approach.

"We've given the Iranians a limited period of time you know, weeks not to digest a proposal to move forward. And if they choose not to verifiably suspend their program, then there will be action taken in the UN Security Council," said Bush.

French President Jacques Chirac and British Prime Minister Tony Blair also sent out a strong message to Iran to halt its controversial nuclear programme as they met for talks in Paris.

The two leaders said both countries were at one in their aims to bring a peaceful, diplomatic solution to the crisis as Iran.

"We call upon the Iranian authorities to consider the positive route in a constructive spirit and not to opt for the route to long-term isolation," Chirac, Blair and key ministers from both governments said in a statement.

Iran had until the Group of Eight summit in July to consider the incentives package, Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel said in an interview published today.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said yesterday that Iran accelerated its enrichment activity on June 6, either coincidentally or in a deliberate gesture.

This was the same day European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana visited Tehran to present the package.

In its report, a copy of which was obtained bysources , the IAEA said inspectors noted during a May 2 visit to the Natanz enrichment facilities that Iran had practically ceased enrichment, by supplying only two centrifuges.

But on Tuesday, activities resumed at full capacity on the 164-centrifuge cascade, the report said.