A senior Iranian official has acknowledged Iran is working on an advanced uranium enrichment centrifuge, but denied that such second-generation equipment had already been produced, a press report said on Monday.
"That Iran is building a new generation of centrifuge is a lie. Iran is just conducting a preliminary study of the G2 centrifuge and has informed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)," Hossein Mussavian, head of foreign relations at Iran's Supreme National Security Council, told the Hamshahri newspaper.
Diplomats at the IAEA's headquarters in Vienna said last week that UN nuclear weapons inspectors in Iran had found blueprints for an advanced uranium enrichment centrifuge, the G2, that Tehran had failed to declare even as it was claiming to be providing full disclosure on its atomic energy programme.
But the diplomats said the discovery was not a "smoking gun" that the IAEA could use to take Iran before the UN Security Council, where it could face sanctions.
Nevertheless, the discovery has raised fresh alarms and has placed the Islamic republic under further scrutiny ahead of the publication of a new IAEA report on Iran's controversial bid to generate atomic energy.
IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei is expected to circulate two reports this week on UN inspections, one on Iran and the other on Libya.
"Iran is carrying out very basic studies and research on G2 centrifuges and it has informed the agency about it," Mussavian said.
"It is not something the agency has discovered, Iran has informed the agency about it... It's a sheer lie that Iran is manufacturing G2 centrifuges."
Mussavian said Iran had not yet produced any atomic fuel from its centrifuges and was determined to build international confidence in its claim that its nuclear programme was geared entirely to producing electricity.
"Making and using nuclear weapons contravenes Islamic laws and they have no place in Iran's defence strategy," he said.
The IAEA board had given Iran until last October 31 to reveal all details of its nuclear program.
The discovery of G2 centrifuge designs in Iran led some arms experts to speculate that Iran may be have a secret enrichment facility apart from the one at Natanz in the centre of the country, which is being built to accommodate older G1 design centrifuges.
But Mussavian said: "Iran does not have any enrichment facility centre other than Natanz and Natanz is under the full supervision of the IAEA."
In addition, Iran had promised Europe's "big three" that it would suspend uranium enrichment, yet appears to be working within a narrow definition of that suspension.
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