Officials: Iran still enriching uranium

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060830/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iran_nuclear_19

By GEORGE JAHN, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 32 minutes ago

VIENNA, Austria - Iran has kept enriching uranium despite the
threat of U.N. sanctions and a looming deadline to freeze such
operations, U.N. and European officials said Wednesday.

The officials said Iran had continued to enrich uranium until at least
Tuesday.

Its ongoing enrichment could act as a trigger for action by the
U.N. Security Council, which had set Thursday as the final day for
Tehran to freeze such activity.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because the
information was confidential, said Iran had also snubbed overtures from
world powers for a new meeting on its nuclear program.

Iranian defiance on enrichment will be detailed in a report from the
International Atomic Energy Agency due Thursday.

Immediate sanctions are unlikely, as permanent council members Russia
and China are expected to resist U.S.-led efforts for a quick response.

A senior European official said Tehran has not responded to a recent
European Union offer, on behalf of the five Security Council
members plus Germany, to discuss Tehran's terms for new nuclear talks.
The further sign of Iran's willingness to confront the international
community is likely to fuel Washington's push for swift economic
sanctions,

Inspectors for the Vienna-based IAEA remained in Iran Wednesday as they
continued gathering information that will go into Thursday's non-public
report. While their most recent findings were not available Wednesday
afternoon, a senior U.N. official said that Iranian centrifuges were
enriching small quantities of uranium gas as late as Tuesday.

Enriched uranium can be used in civilian nuclear reactions or, at
greater purity, as fissile material for an atomic warhead.

Iran insists it has a right to enrich uranium for what it says is a
future nuclear power program. There is increasing concern, however,
that Tehran is seeking to become a nuclear-armed state.

The United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany offered
Iran a package of technological and political incentives June 1 in
exchange for Tehran's commitment to freeze enrichment before talks
began.

Tehran responded Aug. 21 in what heads of governments and senior
diplomats have characterized as an inadequate counteroffer that will be
rejected. The response makes no mention of any willingness to suspend
enrichment before talks, let alone a long-term moratorium on such
activity.

.

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