France is concerned about Iran's plans to construct a new uranium enrichment facility in 2011, a spokeswoman for the French Foreign Ministry said on Monday.
Earlier on Monday Iranian nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi told ISNA news agency that the Islamic Republic would begin building an enrichment center by next March.
Iran plans to build a total of ten such centers.
France, along with other western powers, suspects Iran of seeking to build nuclear weapons under the guise of its nuclear program, which Tehran says is aimed at the peaceful generation of civilian energy.
"The uranium enrichment program has no obvious civil purpose since the fuel for the country's only nuclear reactor [Bushehr] that will run in the near future is supplied from Russia," Christine Fages said.
Fage said that if the construction of the new nuclear facility is confirmed, it will be "a new violation of Iran's commitments to six UN Security Council resolutions".
"We are waiting for Iran to choose to cooperate and to finally begin real negotiations with the Six group of international mediators," Fages said.
International pressure on Iran increased in early February when Tehran announced it had begun enriching uranium to 20% in lieu of an agreement on an exchange that would provide it with fuel for a research reactor.
Turkey, Brazil and Iran signed an agreement on May 17, dubbed the Tehran Declaration, in which Iran committed itself to giving 1,200 kg of its 3.5%-enriched uranium to Turkey in exchange for 20%-enriched uranium it would receive from Western countries to be used as fuel in the nuclear research reactor near Tehran.
PARIS, August 16 (RIA Novosti)
