Iran wants 50,000 centrifuges, not 3000

IRAN is still seeking to install 50,000 uranium enriching centrifuges at its nuclear plant in Natanz, the head of the Iranian atomic energy organisation said today.

"The objective of the Islamic Republic of Iran is not just the installation of 3,000 centrifuges at the Natanz plant but we are doing everything to install 50,000 centrifuges,'' Gholam Reza Aghazadeh said, according to the IRNA news agency.

Iran said yesterday it could now enrich uranium on an industrial scale but did not disclose how many centrifuges it had now installed at the Natanz plant in central Iran to enrich uranium.

Mr Aghazadeh said he did not disclose at a ceremony yesterday the number of centrifuges Iran had installed at a massive underground facility in Natanz as he did not want to "create ambiguities'' about Iran's objectives.

"I did not want people to say that Iran has finished installing 3000 centrifuges and everything has been completed now,'' he said.

"I thought that foreign media might interpret that the nuclear program of Iran had come to an end with the installation of 3000 centrifuges,'' he said.

"On the contrary, we have entered into the industrial phase and the installation of machines will continue until we reach 50,000 centrifuges,'' he said.

The US, which accuses Tehran of seeking nuclear weapons and has not ruled out the option of military action to bring Iran to heel, said it was "very concerned'' by yesterday's announcement.

Enrichment of uranium is the key sticking point in the stand-off between Iran and the West as the process can produce nuclear fuel but in highly extended form can also make the fissile core for an atomic bomb.

Iran insists its nuclear drive is solely aimed at generating energy.