Iran said yesterday that it will continue its peaceful nuclear activities after a second cascade of centrifuges at a uranium enrichment facility was launched, the official IRNA news agency reported.

"A second cascade (of centrifuges) has been activated in continuation of Iran's research activities and within the framework of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad-Ali Hosseini said.

"It was no special event. Work on this second cascade is a continuation of Iran's legal activities under the supervision ofthe International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)," he was quoted as telling a weekly press briefing.

The Iranian official also urged all parties concerned to continue the path of negotiations as the best way of resolving the nuclear issue.

Hosseini said that agreements reached in talks between Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani and European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana could be a "good base" to continue the talks.

He advised European states not to "bring to naught" previous efforts of all sides to try to end the current nuclear standoff, according to the IRNA report.

An unidentified official source told the Iranian Student's News Agency (ISNA) on Friday that Tehran had fed gas into a second cascade of centrifuges at a uranium enrichment facility and obtained the product.

The second cascade of centrifuges doubles Iran's uranium enrichment capability from the previous cascade of 164 centrifuges, according to ISNA.

The United States has been seeking to impose sanctions on Iran through the UN 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, while voicing hope for talks with Europe, Russia, China and the United States and vowing not to suspend nuclear work as prerequisite for such talks.