Iran informs IAEA about atom fuel production

Iran handed over a letter to the U.N. nuclear agency on Monday informing it about the Islamic republic's plans to start enriching higher-grade atom fuel from Tuesday, state television reported.

"Today we handed over the letter," Iran's envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Ali Asghar Soltanieh, told Arabic-language al-Alam television.

Iran's atomic chief Ali Akbar Salehi earlier announced that Tehran will stop the process of uranium enrichment to the level of 20% if a U.N.-backed nuclear deal is clinched.

Pressures

The announcement was met with a sharp riposte on Monday from world powers, which fear that Iran's nuclear enrichment programme masks a bid to make atomic weapons, despite Tehran insisting its purpose is entirely peaceful.

French Defence Minister Herve Morin warned after meeting his U.S. counterpart Robert Gates in Paris that both countries will push for new U.N. sanctions against Iran.

"We spoke about Iran. Our positions are in complete agreement," Morin told reporters at a joint appearance with Gates. "We have no choice but to work on other measures."

Gates, whose aides said earlier the United States would ask France to submit a sanctions motion at the council, which it currently chairs, said: "We are very much agreed that action by the international community is the next step."

Possible sanctions targets include Iran's central bank, the Revolutionary Guards who Western powers say are key to Iran's nuclear program, shipping firms and its energy sector, Western diplomats say.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, meanwhile, insisted that Iran does not have the ability to enrich uranium to 20 percent and accused Tehran of "blackmail."

The Iranians "do not know how to make fuel" for their existing medical reactor, he told reporters in Paris. "For what purposes do they want to enrich it to 20 percent?"

Iran's announcement "is really blackmail. One could call it diplomacy, but if that is what is then it is truly negative," Kouchner said.

Doubts have also been expressed that Iran has mastered the enrichment process sufficiently to be able to produce the fuel it needs.

"They can't manufacture the fuel assemblies," said one diplomat close to the IAEA in Vienna.

Iranians do not know how to make fuel…For what purposes do they want to enrich it to 20 percent

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner