LONDON, Jan. 10 (Xinhuanet) -- Britain on Tuesday condemned Iran's decision to restart research into nuclear fuel, saying it would "seriously jeopardize" negotiations with the European Union.

    "This is a very negative development and seriously jeopardizes the negotiating process," said a spokesman at Britain's Foreign Office.

    Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said in a statement that Iran's move amounted to yet another breach of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board resolutions, as well as the Paris Agreement that Iran signed with Britain, France and Germany in November 2004.

    In the pact Iran agreed to freeze temporarily all uranium enrichment, reprocessing and conversion-related activities.

    "There was no good reason why Iran should have taken this step if its intentions are truly peaceful and it wanted to resolve long-standing international concerns," said Straw.

    "I will be in close touch with my French and German colleagues, along with Javier Solana, in the coming days to discuss this. We will also be talking to other EU colleagues, international partners and Dr (Mohamed) ElBaradei (chief of the IAEA) over the next few days." Straw added.

    On Tuesday, Iran removed seals at its Natanz uranium enrichment plant and resumed research into nuclear fuel. Iran announced last week it would restart research as of Monday into the nuclear fuel cycle, a process linked to uranium enrichment that it has suspended since October 2003.

    For more than two years, Britain, France and Germany, with support from the IAEA Board, have been engaged in lengthy negotiations with Tehran aimed at obtaining guarantees that Iran is not seeking to develop nuclear weapons using its nuclear energy program as a cover.

    The United States accuses Iran of running a covert nuclear arms program. Iran, however, says its nuclear work is designed merely to meet its energy needs and insists on the right to develop a full nuclear fuel cycle. Enditem