Special Report: Iran Nuclear Crisis

    BEIJING, April 16 (Xinhua) -- Officials from the United States, Britain, China, France, Russia and Germany convene Wednesday in Shanghai, China, to discuss a plan to restart talks on Iran's nuclear issue, but Tehran's latest defiant moves indicate their job would not be easy.

    On Monday, just two days before the key meeting, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said other nations can gain access to Iran's nuclear technology within the framework of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) regulations.

    "Experiences and valuable achievements of Iran concerning peaceful nuclear technology are reachable by other nations within the framework of IAEA regulations," Ahmadinejad said at a meeting with Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo.

    Monopolizing powers "are endeavoring to prevent nations from gaining access to the peaceful nuclear energy," he said.

    But the Islamic Republic of Iran will resist this pressure and intends "to restore this right of acquiring nuclear technology for peaceful purposes to all nations," Ahmadinejad added.

    The Iranian president's remarks came one day after Gholamreza Aghazadeh, the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, abruptly canceled a meeting with IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei.

    The meeting to discuss Tehran's nuclear program was due to have taken place in Vienna Monday but has now been put off to a more "appropriate time," Iran's official IRNA news agency reported.

    An IAEA official later confirmed the report, saying no reason had been given for the cancellation.

    According to a senior diplomat in Vienna, ElBaradei had planned to use the meeting to renew a request for more information on allegations that Tehran had tried to make nuclear weapons.

    The meeting would have also focused on Iran's latest show of defiance toward UN Security Council demands to suspend uranium enrichment, the diplomat said.

    Last Friday, IRNA reported that Iran has installed 492 new centrifuges at its sensitive Natanz nuclear facility.

    "Three new cascades of 164 centrifuges are installed and now operational in the Natanz facility," the report quoted an unnamed official as saying.

    "The centrifuges are P-1 type," the official added. The P-1 machine is an old design to produce enriched uranium.

    Just days ago, Ahmadinejad had said his country tested a new advanced centrifuge which is "smaller" but whose capacity "is five times greater than the current machines (P-1)".

    Iran already has about 3,000 centrifuges in Natanz, and the new announcement showed Iran's latest defiance of international demands to halt its nuclear enrichment work.

    The upcoming talks in Shanghai are expected to focus on whether to enhance a package of political, security and economic incentives offered to Iran in 2006 along with further sanctions to punish Tehran's defiance.

    Since December 2006, the UN Security Council has imposed three sanctions on Iran over its refusal to halt sensitive nuclear activities.

    Mohammad Ali Hosseini, a spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, suggested that Iran wanted compensation for damage caused by these sanctions, saying any negotiations should include "the manner of compensating" the country.

    "Any package that would not guarantee the Islamic Republic of Iran's rights or that might undermine or limit Iran's rights would not be accepted by Iran," he told a weekly news conference in Tehran.

    Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu has said at a press conference that China always supports the peaceful solution of the Iran nuclear issue through dialogue and negotiation.

    She called on the involving parties to show their creativity, flexibility in an effort to find appropriate ways for a "comprehensive and long-lasting settlement" of the nuclear issue.

U.S. skeptical about Iran's claim on nuclear development

    WASHINGTON, April 8 (Xinhua) -- The United States criticized Iran on Tuesday for its continued violation of UN resolution on disputed nuclear program while expressing its doubt about Iran's claim that it had started work to install 6,000 new centrifuges to enrich uranium.

    "I can't substantiate the claims. There are always multiple claims coming out of Iran about progress on this, progress on that. I don't think the underlying situation has changed," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters.  Full story

Ahmadinejad: Iran starts to install 6,000 nuclear centrifuges

    TEHRAN, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced on Tuesday that the Islamic Republic had started to install 6,000 new centrifuges at Natanz nuclear plant, state media reported.

    The president made the remarks after inspecting various sections of Natanz nuclear site in central Isfahan province, the official IRNA news agency reported.  Full story

U.S.: six nations to renew talks on Iran's nuclear issue

    WASHINGTON, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Officials from the United States, Britain, China, France, Russia and Germany are due to meet later this month in a bid to renew their efforts to make Iran halt its sensitive nuclear work, the State Department said on Monday.

    "I can only narrow it down to mid-April. We're going to wait, we're going to let our hosts announce the meeting," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.   Full story

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