Envoys Say Enriched Uranium Found in Iran

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad waves to journalists as he walks with Indonesian Minister of Research and Technology Kusmayanto Kadiman, left, after meeting with Indonesia's second largest Muslim organization Muhammadiyah in Jakarta, Indonesia, Friday, May 12, 2006. The Iranian president told a meeting of Indonesian Islamic leaders his country's nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, participants in discussion said. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim) (Achmad Ibrahim - AP)

Iran's president remained defiant. He accused the Americans of "waging a propaganda campaign" against his country. "The people of Iran and the country are not afraid of them," President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told Islamic leaders in Indonesia.

On Saturday, Ahmadinejad reiterated that his aim was to generate energy, and that he would continue to fight for the right to develop new technologies. He spoke ahead of trade talks between the so-called Developing Eight nations.

Uranium enriched to between 3.5 percent and 5 percent is used to make fuel for reactors to generate electricity. It becomes suitable for use in nuclear weapons when enriched to more than 90 percent.

Iran denies it wants to make nuclear arms and says it is interested in uranium only to generate power. It already has enriched uranium to low levels _ an accomplishment that opens the pathway to weapons-grade enrichment.

Diplomats accredited to the IAEA on Friday noted that Tehran's enrichment program has progressed faster than agency experts had expected. That also suggests Iran has hidden research and development from IAEA inspectors, they said.

To argue that it never produced highly enriched uranium domestically, Tehran cites the IAEA's tentative conclusion last year that traces collected from Iranian sites with no suspected ties to the military arrived on equipment from Pakistan.

But the origin of the samples now being studied created some concern in that regard.

One of the diplomats told The Associated Press that the samples came from vacuum pumps that has various applications, including use in uranium-enriching centrifuges at a former research center at Lavizan-Shian. The center is believed to have been the repository of equipment bought by the Iranian military that could be used in a nuclear weapons program.

The United States alleges Iran conducted high-explosive tests that could have a bearing on developing nuclear weapons at the site.

The State Department said in 2004 that Lavizan's buildings had been dismantled and topsoil removed to hide nuclear weapons-related experiments. The IAEA later confirmed the site had been razed.

In an April 28 report, IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei said the agency took samples from some of the equipment of the former Physics Research Center at Lavizan-Shian.

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