Iran says building 3,000 centrifuges

The announcement,which comes after talks between Iran and world powers in Kazakhstan about its nuclear work ended with an agreement to meet again,underlines Irans continued refusal to bow to Western pressure to curb its nuclear programme.

The International Atomic Energy Agency IAEA said in February 180 so-called IR-2m centrifuges and empty centrifuge casings had been put in place at the facility near the town of Natanz in central Iran. They were not yet operating.

Iranian media on Sunday paraphrased Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani,the head of Irans Atomic Energy Organisation,as saying Iran was producing 3,000 new-generation centrifuges.

The final production line of these centrifuges has reached an end and soon the early generations of these centrifuges with low efficiency will be set aside, Abbasi-Davani said in statements in the Iranian city of Isfahan on Sunday,according to the Fars news agency.