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Iran starts talks with IAEA on nuclear program

Other News Materials 25 September 2007 03:24 (UTC +04:00)

( Reuters ) - Iranian nuclear officials and a visiting team from the U.N. nuclear watchdog held talks on Monday to clarify outstanding questions about Iran's atomic work, which the West fears is a cover to build a nuclear bomb.

The talks with International Atomic Energy Agency officials "will continue in the next two or three days," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told the state broadcaster IRIB.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, speaking at New York's Columbia University during a visit to the United States, said on Monday that Iran's nuclear program was for electricity generation. "We don't believe in nuclear weapons, period."

Iran agreed with the IAEA on August 21 that it would explain the scope of its nuclear program.

The pact allows Iran to settle questions one by one over a period the IAEA says will run to December -- even as Iran adds centrifuges to its Natanz enrichment plant, nearing the 3,000 needed to start producing usable quantities of nuclear fuel.

Western powers have cast doubt on the deal, saying it allows Tehran to string out answers to questions about past, hidden nuclear work while leaving intact its uranium enrichment program, a possible path to the building of atom bombs.

IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei has said Iran's pledge of transparency to remove Western suspicions has raised hope of resolving its nuclear issue.

Hosseini said Iran had already removed some concerns and "the focus of the talks will be P1 and P2 centrifuges."

Iran is using a 1970s vintage centrifuge prone to breakdown if spun at high speed for long periods but is researching a more advanced, more durable model at sites off limits to inspectors. Centrifuges are machines that enrich uranium.

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