Iran president promises news on nuclear programme

TEHRAN: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday promised fresh news on Iran's disputed nuclear programme which Tehran insists is peaceful but the West suspects serves as cover for atomic weapons ambitions.

"The Iranian people will hear news about nuclear developments soon," the state news agency IRNA quoted him as saying on the anniversary of the 1979 foundation of the Islamic republic, without giving details.

The UN Security Council last month applied new sanctions on Iran for its continued refusal to suspend uranium enrichment -- the process which makes nuclear fuel but can be used as well as the fissile core of a bomb.

Tehran has told the International Atomic Energy Agency that it plans to install 3,000 centrifuges for uranium enrichment at an underground facility in Natanz, central Iran.

A 3,000-centrifuge facility could produce enough enriched uranium for one atomic bomb in less than a year.

In April 2006, Iran announced that it had successfully enriched uranium to 3.5 percent. Weapons-grade material needs to be enriched more than 90 per cent.

Iran has retaliated against the UN sanctions by withholding immediate notification of its plans to build or modify nuclear facilities, saying notice would only come six months before they are brought into service.