The United States and France have called for fresh sanctions against Iran after Tehran said it would begin enriching higher-grade nuclear fuel to a level of 20 per cent.
Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, and Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, said Iran should face "strong sanctions" over its nuclear programme, a French official said following a meeting between the two men in Paris.
On Monday, Ali-Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said Tehran had informed the UN atomic agency that it would begin enriching the fuel from Tuesday.
Soltanieh said that Iran would use its nuclear stockpile to enrich uranium for its Tehran research reactor which produces medical isotopes.
New facilities
Earlier, speaking to al-Alam, Iran's Arabic-language state television station, Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of the country's atomic energy organisation, said Tehran planned to build 10 new facilities over the next year where the enrichment could be carried out.
Iran had said in November that it planned to build the enrichment plants but had not given a timescale.
PJ Crowley, a spokesman for the US state department, told Al Jazeera that Washington was "looking at how we can apply pressure on Iran, on the government itself".
Source : http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/02/20102905431956447.html
Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, and Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, said Iran should face "strong sanctions" over its nuclear programme, a French official said following a meeting between the two men in Paris.
On Monday, Ali-Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said Tehran had informed the UN atomic agency that it would begin enriching the fuel from Tuesday.
Soltanieh said that Iran would use its nuclear stockpile to enrich uranium for its Tehran research reactor which produces medical isotopes.
New facilities
Earlier, speaking to al-Alam, Iran's Arabic-language state television station, Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of the country's atomic energy organisation, said Tehran planned to build 10 new facilities over the next year where the enrichment could be carried out.
Iran had said in November that it planned to build the enrichment plants but had not given a timescale.
PJ Crowley, a spokesman for the US state department, told Al Jazeera that Washington was "looking at how we can apply pressure on Iran, on the government itself".
Source : http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/02/20102905431956447.html
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