Iran to Resume Nuclear Fuel Research

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran has decided to resume research into nuclear fuel production, but would not enrich uranium, a top official said Tuesday.

Mohammad Saeedi, deputy head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, said the country had suffered a lot from its suspension of such research during the past 2 1/2 years and that it could no longer keep its scientists from doing this type of work.

Saeedi did not say what nuclear activity Iran would now resume, but he said no decision had been made to resume uranium enrichment.

The West has long opposed Iran's enrichment of uranium as the process, when pursued to high levels, can produce the fuel for nuclear weapons.

Saeedi stressed the resumed work would not actually produce nuclear fuel.

"The research in this field will have little to do with the production of nuclear fuel," Saeedi said.

Earlier Tuesday, a Foreign Ministry spokesman had also said that resumed research would not involve enriching uranium. Saying that a full statement was likely to be made later, spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said the "research has nothing to do with the production of nuclear fuel."

"It has been decided that the International Atomic Energy Agency will be informed today about (our) research in the field of nuclear fuel. Research will resume in cooperation and coordination with the IAEA in the next few days," Saeedi said.

Iran has come under heavy international pressure from the IAEA, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, and the West to abandon its program to produce fuel for its Russian-built nuclear reactor that is due to come online this year.

It has refused to renounce the enrichment of uranium but suspended many aspects of its nuclear fuel program as a goodwill gesture during negotiations with Britain, France and Germany.

The talks have failed to resolve the dispute and more are scheduled for later this month.

The United States has accused Iran of secretly aspiring to build nuclear weapons. Iran denies this, saying its program is limited to producing electricity.