TEHRAN, April 11 (RIA Novosti) - Iran confirmed Tuesday that it had begun producing low-enriched uranium.
Gholamreza Aghazadeh, the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, said on national TV that Iranian specialists had started enriching uranium to 3.5% - a level sufficient for use in nuclear power plants.
He said 3,000 enrichment centrifuges would be put into operation in Iran before March 21, 2007.
Earlier on Tuesday, former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani told Kuwait's KUNA news agency that Iran was producing enriched uranium from 164 centrifuges.
The West suspects Iran of pursuing a covert program to develop nuclear weapons, and demands that it halt all enrichment activities. Tehran says its nuclear programs are purely civilian.
