Iran to Resume Nuclear Fuel Research

Diplomatic efforts to resolve international concern over Iran’s nuclear program were today thrown into doubt when Tehran said it was to resume fuel research.

Gholamhossein Elham, an Iranian government spokesman, made the announcement at a press conference.

The European Union and United States earlier warned that if Iran went ahead with nuclear fuel research it could lead to Tehran being referred to the UN security council for possible sanctions.

Mohamed ElBaradei, Nobel peace prize winner and head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told Sky News in an interview broadcast today that the world was "running out of patience with Iran".

Iran insists its nuclear ambitions are entirely peaceful and says it has the right to enrich uranium on its own soil.

Nuclear fuel research, which was suspended more than two years ago, is considered to breach previous IAEA orders for Iran to suspend "all uranium enrichment-related activities" and of the terms of the negotiating agreement between Iran and Britain, Germany and France

The EU - represented by the three negotiating countries - and the US back a plan put forward by Moscow for Iran to enrich uranium in Russia, which would ensure the uranium was only enriched to levels where it could be used to generate electricity and not to make nuclear bombs.

The decision to resume nuclear fuel research represents another of the confrontational positions taken on foreign policy by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The Iranian president last week delivered a tirade against the European powers and signaled that he saw no point in negotiating with them.