Washington: Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak has said Iran is "quite advanced" in its nuclear weapons progrmme and may be in the final stages of manufacturing warheads.

Iran "is quite advanced, far beyond the level of the Manhattan Project" in its nuclear weapons progrmme, Barak said. "We suspect they are probably already working on warheads for ground-to-ground missiles," he told The Washington Post and Newsweek magazine in a detailed interview. Barak's statement come on the heels of the US National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) report last year that showed that Iran had abandoned its nuclear weapon ambitions.

The Iranians "probably ... Have another clandestine enrichment operation beyond the one in Natanz and ... Are gearing towards nuclear weapons capability," the Israeli minister said.

Britain, France and Germany have been spearheading efforts to negotiate an end to the nuclear deadlock with Iran, which denies Western allegations that it is seeking a nuclear weapons capability under the guise of its civilian programme. However, Iran has argued that it has the right to conduct uranium enrichment as it has signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Source : PTI