Iranian President MahmoudAhmadinejad said on Monday that his country wants to
have 100,000centrifuges for enriching uranium, the Iranian Students NewsAgency
(ISNA) reported.
"We intend to have 100,000 centrifuges and, God willing, Iranwill be able to
meet its needs in nuclear fuel by next year,"Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying.
The Iranian president said last week that Iran intended tolaunch 60,000
centrifuges in its nuclear program.Iran has so far built two cascades of 164
centrifuges each foruranium enrichment, which can be used to make nuclear fuel
or, inmuch higher grades, the core of an atom bomb.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad-Ali Hosseiniconfirmed earlier
this month Iran's plan to install 3,000centrifuges for uranium enrichment by
March 2007.
Asked whether Tehran would execute its plan to install 3,000 centrifuges by
the end of the current Iranian year, which will endon March 20, 2007, the
spokesman answered that "Iranian officialsand experts are still seeking to carry
out this (plan)."
The United States has been seeking to impose sanctions on Iranthrough the UN
Security Council on the grounds that Tehran isdeveloping a nuclear-weapon
program under the guise of a civilian-use program.
However, Iran has insisted that its nuclear program is forpeaceful purposes
and voiced hope for talks on the nuclearstandoff. But the Islamic Republic
rejected a prerequisite ofsuspending nuclear work for such
talks.