TEHRAN, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Tuesday called for unconditional uranium fuel swap for Tehran's medical research reactor, rejecting claims that Iran attempts to gain access to nuclear weapons, the official IRNA news agency reported.
Addressing a crowd of people in Birjand, the capital of Iran's southern Khorasan province, Ahmadinejad said Iran has offered unconditional 20-percent enriched uranium fuel swap with the United States, Russia and France for Tehran's research reactor, implying that Tehran still sticks to it.
Under a draft deal brokered by the IAEA, most of Iran's existing low-grade enriched uranium should be shipped to Russia and France, where it would be processed into fuel rods with the purity of 20 percent. The higher-level enriched uranium will then be transported back to Iran.
Ahmadinejad rejected certain Western states' claim that they have evidences that Iran will be able to produce nuclear bomb within coming years, the report said.
"Once again, I strongly express that Iran is not after nuclear bomb," he was quoted as saying by IRNA.
Meanwhile, Iran's president insisted on the country's uranium enrichment program, saying "Iran is to powerfully make advances to acquire technology for enrichment of uranium for its nuclear sites, and the enemies will not be able to halt Iran's progress and development."
Ahmadinejad announced earlier this month that Iran had produced first batch of 20 percent enriched uranium under the watch of the IAEA.
The United States and its Western allies have been accusing Iran of secretly developing nuclear weapons under the disguise of a civilian program. Iran has denied the accusation and stressed its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes.
