Iran Raises Stakes With Claim of Nuclear Leap

Iran claimed yesterday to have made a dramatic leap forward in its nuclear programme by enriching uranium "on an industrial scale", a move likely to accelerate a collision with the US and strengthen calls in Washington for military action.

In a gesture of defiance to President George Bush and the UN security council, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad trumpeted the claim, making the announcement with pomp and ceremony at the heart of Iran's nuclear programme, the uranium enrichment facility at Natanz.

Mr Ahmadinejad claimed "the Iranian nation had joined the group of countries who enriched uranium on an industrial scale", but did not specify what that entailed. Iran's top diplomat, Ari Larijani, said the country had 3,000 centrifuges capable of processing uranium to make either low enriched fuel for generating electricity or - as the west fears - highly-enriched material for a warhead.

Before an audience that included his cabinet, senior mullahs and dozens of foreign ambassadors, Mr Ahmadinejad warned security council members that Iran would "reconsider its treatment towards them" if they continued to oppose its nuclear ambitions. "They have seen again and again that our nation is powerful enough to do that," he said to chants of "death to Britain", "death to America" and "death to Israel". "I advise them to observe the legal rights of different nations and stop monopolising, because that will not be to their benefit."

Whatever the truth of the Iranian claims, there was no mistaking the disdain shown for two mild sanctions packages passed by the security council so far, and the threat of more if Iran does not cease uranium enrichment by May 24.

There are also voices inside the Bush administration and the Israeli government calling for military action before Iran acquires the capacity to build a bomb. Yesterday's ceremony will have strengthened their claims that diplomacy and UN sanctions are having no effect.

Sean McCormack, a spokesman for the US state department, said the international community did not "believe Iran's assurances that their programme is peaceful in nature."

In London, the Foreign Office said Britain might use its presidency of the security council this month to discuss Iran's new claims, as well as the 13-day hostage crisis involving the 15 UK service personnel.

The latest UN sanctions package, passed unanimously by the security council on March 24, included a ban on Iranian arms exports and the freezing of foreign assets of several leaders of the revolutionary guard and Iran's fifth biggest bank. British and US officials have suggested that the pressure so far has opened fissures in Tehran over the wisdom of continuing its nuclear drive.

Scientists believe that with 3,000 centrifuges operating smoothly and continually, Iran would have enough highly enriched uranium for a bomb within nine months. However, nuclear analysts in the US and Britain believe the Iranian leadership may be exaggerating its progress. They question whether Iranian scientists have mastered spinning such a large number of the very delicate machines at once.

"I think it's a boast," said Mark Fitzpatrick, a former US state department expert on non-proliferation, who is at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. "I don't believe they have 3,000 centrifuges running in Natanz. There's not been any evidence they can even run test cascades [arrays of centrifuges] in a continuous manner. Iran is skipping some steps; that gives this announcement a largely political nature."

Mr Ahmadinejad went out of his way to project national unity and determination yesterday. The televised ceremony featured nationalistic songs and special arrangements by a live orchestra.

Scores of foreign and domestic journalists were bussed to the event, passing anti-aircraft missile batteries along the approaches to the Natanz site in central Iran. The event marked the anniversary of last year's announcement that Iran had achieved its nuclear fuel cycle, a development that raised tensions with the west.

Mr Ahmadinejad said Iran was on course to produce 20,000 MGW of nuclear-generated electricity and would not be deterred by UN resolutions. "Our peaceful programme is a test for the security council and particularly its permanent members," he said. "Their decision show how far they are committed to observing international and national rights and upholding justice and righteousness."

The director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN's atomic watchdog, Mohamed ElBaradei, predicted last month that Iran would achieve industrial capacity in uranium this summer. It is a moment experts at the IAEA feared as a potential point of no return, because it puts the country within reach of making a warhead. "It is capacity that is the proliferation risk, not the know-how itself," said one IAEA diplomat.

The agency acknowledges that it has no proof that Iran is seeking to make a bomb, but it says there are many areas in which Tehran has not been entirely forthcoming with information. In its last report in March, it said Iran had stopped the agency's 24-hour surveillance of the Natanz enrichment plant.