Tehran: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Wednesday Iran would enrich uranium to a higher level itself.
Western diplomats said Iran two months ago accepted in principle a plan for it to send 75 per cent of its low-enriched uranium (LEU) to Russia and France to be further enriched, then converted into fuel for nuclear medicine programme.
The West hoped that farming out much of Iran's LEU reserve for reprocessing would minimise the risk of Tehran further refining LEU to high purity suitable for atom bombs.
But Tehran has since retreated from the deal, demanding amendments that would keep its LEU stockpile intact. Some Iranian officials suggested Iran could enrich the LEU itself from 3.5 per cent to the 20 per cent level needed to turn the material into medical reactor fuel.
"The Iranian nation will produce 20 per cent enriched uranium and anything it needs [itself]," Ahmadinejad said in Isfahan.
