'Industrial scale' nuke work

Natanz: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that his country had begun enriching uranium with 3,000 centrifuges in an act of defiance against the UN Security Council, which has imposed two rounds of sanctions on it for refusing to halt such work.

In a speech to a gathering at the Natanz uranium enrichment facility in central Iran on Monday, Ahmadinejad also warned that Iran would defend its nuclear rights "to the end", and , promised that no amount of international pressure would prevent Iran from taking its nuclear programme to new "summits".

He said, "I proudly announce that as of today Iran is among the countries which produce nuclear fuel on an industrial scale."

Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani was quoted as saying that Iran had "reached the capacity of 3,000". Asked if feedstock uranium gas had been injected into them, he told reporters: "Yes, we have injected gas."

The White House said it was "very concerned" about the claim and warned against "unacceptable" limits on Tehran's cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog.

National security spokesman Gordon Johndroe said, "Iran's decision to limit even further its cooperation with the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] is unacceptable."

He added, "We are very concerned about Iran's announcement that they entered an 'industrial stage' of nuclear fuel production."