Iranian technicians installed a second line, or cascade of 164 centrifuges, and were due to inject gas into it later this week, the Iranian Student's News Agency (ISNA) reported yesterday.

ISNA quoted an informed source as saying that "Iran's second cascade has been installed two weeks ago and the injection of gas into it will be done this week."

"Soon after injection of the gas, we will obtain the product of the second centrifuge cascade," added the source.

Earlier on Monday, Mohamed ElBaradei, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said in Washington's Georgetown University that Iran has taken another step in its ability to enrich uranium.

Iranian technicians had pieced together a second line, or cascade of 164 centrifuges, and are days away from using the cascade to enrich uranium, said ElBaradei, adding "it is in place and ready to go."

The new cascade is considered a political move by Iranian officials who are hoping to send a defiant message to the U.N. Security Council, as it weighs possible sanctions against the country, said the Washington Post.

The United States has been seeking to impose sanctions on Iran through the U.N. Security Council on the grounds that Tehran is developing a nuclear-weapons program under the garb of a civilian-use program.

However, Iran has said that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only, while vowing that it wants to hold talks with Europe, Russia, China and the United States, but it will not suspend its nuclear work as a prerequisite.