Iran insisted on Sunday that it would not stop uranium enrichment despite a looming UN deadline to halt operations, which the West says is part of an effort to build atomic bombs.
 
"Iran will continue its uranium enrichment. We want to produce our own nuclear fuel," Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani was quoted as saying by the students' news agency ISNA. "We will never stop it."

The UN Security Council has told Iran to suspend atomic fuel work by August 31 or face possible sanctions.

In what is considered to be an act of defiance against the UN, Iran inaugurated a heavy-water plant on Saturday. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad shrugged off the possibility of sanctions, insisting his country would not slow down its nuclear ambitions.

The ceremony at the Khondab heavy-water plant, which has been in operation since 2004, was largely a symbolic gesture underlining Iran's determination to ignore international pressure. The plant's top official, Manouchehr Madadi, said the facility can produce up to 16 tons of heavy water a year double the amount it previously made.

Heavy water contains a heavier hydrogen particle that allows a nuclear reactor to run on the natural uranium mined by Iran, without undergoing the enrichment process. But the spent fuel from a heavy-water reactor can be reprocessed to extract plutonium for use in a bomb.

The West suspects Iran is secretly pursuing nuclear arms but Teheran insists its nuclear work aims only to generate electricity.

"Any measure to deprive Iran of its right will not change our mind about our aim," Larijani said.

The West's main concern is Iran's enrichment program, a process that can be used to produce fuel for nuclear power stations or material for nuclear bombs.

Iran has refused to stop the work and shrugged off the threat of sanctions, saying these would drive soaring oil prices higher still, damaging the economies of the industrialized world.

"Those who threaten us with sanctions know perfectly that we have obtained a home-made atomic program under international sanctions," Larijani said. "And it is irreversible."

The US has warned of swift action on sanctions after August 31, if Iran does not heed the UN demand. But analysts say divisions within the UN could slow down the imposition of punitive measures.

Italy's Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema said Rome wanted to join nuclear talks with Teheran, currently being led by these six world powers. Italy has strong trade ties with Iran.

"We also have the right to be included, when dealing with the Iranian question," D'Alema was quoted as saying in Italy's La Repubblica newspaper.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan will pay a two-day visit to Iran on September 2, two days after the stated deadline, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told a news conference.

New submarine-to-surface missile

In another development, Iran test-fired a new submarine-to-surface missile during war games in the Persian Gulf on Sunday, in an apparent show of its military might.

A brief video clip showed the long-range missile, called Thaqeb or Saturn, exiting the water and hitting a target on the water's surface within a two-kilometer range. The test was part of large-scale military exercises that began on August 19.

(China Daily August 28, 2006)