(04/05/2007) Iran's refusal to budge on its objections to the agenda of a nuclear conference pushed the meeting closer to collapse Thursday, as diplomats said Tehran had set up hundreds more centrifuge machines to enrich uranium at an underground facility.
Iran has said it is determined to expand its disputed nuclear program and further defy U.N. demands that it freeze all preparations for enrichment, a potential pathway to nuclear arms.
Diplomats familiar with Iran's nuclear program said Tehran had recently set up more centrifuges at its underground uranium enrichment plant at Natanz, bringing the number of machines ready to spin uranium gas into enriched form to more than 1,600.
The diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment on internal conference matters to the media.
An International Atomic Energy Agency document obtained last month said the Islamic regime was running more than 1,300 centrifuge machines to enrich uranium at its Natanz facility.
Its ultimate goal is to have 50,000 centrifuges. That would be enough to supply fuel for what Tehran says is a planned network of atomic reactors to generate electricity - or material for a full-scale nuclear weapons program.
The expansion of Iran's enrichment program is also linked to the main issue of contention at the Vienna conference - Tehran's refusal to accept a phrase in the agenda calling for the ``need for full compliance with'' the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. That position has delayed adoption of the agenda since the conference opened Monday.
``The outcome of the consultation is that the position of the state parties ... remains the same,'' conference chairman Yukiya Amano told delegates before adjourning an afternoon session until Friday, only minutes after it reconvened.
He said he would continue with ``informal consultations'' to find a solution to the impasse.
The delay - the second since the conference began on Monday - led to growing pessimism about how much the meeting could accomplish before its scheduled end May 11. Several delegates suggested that if the dispute remains unresolved by early next week, the conference could be dissolved.
Iran maintains that its nuclear activities - including its enrichment program - comply with the treaty. However, its objections to the agenda language suggest it may be worried that emphasis on compliance with the treaty could be used against it in discussions at the conference.
Comments by Iranian chief delegate Ali Ashgar Soltanieh outside the conference appeared to support that view. Soltanieh told The Associated Press that his country was ready to drop its objections if the statement on compliance was expanded to specify that it also applied to disarmament by nations with nuclear weapons.
Several diplomats said Tehran had not formally submitted any proposed amendment. They suggested the Islamic republic was interested mostly in blocking the meeting out of concerns that it would be called to task for its defiance of U.N. demands that it freeze enrichment.
Those diplomats also spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment on conference matters.
The Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty calls on nations to pledge not to pursue nuclear weapons in exchange for a commitment by five nuclear powers - the U.S., Russia, Britain, France and China - to move toward nuclear disarmament. India and Pakistan, known nuclear weapons states, remain outside the treaty, as does Israel, which is considered to have such arms but has not acknowledged it.
Officials from some 130 of the treaty's 189 signatory countries are attending the conference, excluding North Korea.
Source: Guardian