TEHRAN - Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday that the Islamic republic must accelerate its nuclear energy programme in order to enrich uranium on an industrial scale.
"I ask all nuclear officials to speed up their work so as to produce fuel for the country's (future) power stations," Ahmadinejad said in a speech carried live on state television.
His call came after a senior official announced Iran had successfully enriched uranium to make nuclear fuel, a major breakthrough in its disputed atomic drive that defies a UN Security Council demand for the work to be halted.
Iran insists it only wants to generate nuclear power, but the enrichment process can be extended to make nuclear weapons.
04/11/2006 17:29 GMT