Iranian official signals no scaling back in nuclear activity

Iran will press ahead with its uranium enrichment program, its nuclear energy chief said on Friday, suggesting there will be no change of course despite the election on June 14 of a relative moderate as president.          

Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani, head of the Islamic Republic's Atomic Energy Organization, said production of nuclear fuel would "continue in line with our declared goals. The enrichment linked to fuel production will also not change."          

Speaking through an interpreter to reporters at a nuclear energy conference in St Petersburg, Russia, he said work at Iran's underground Fordow facility - which the West wants Iran to close - would also continue.          

Iran says it is enriching uranium to fuel a planned network of nuclear energy power plants. But enriched uranium can also provide potential material for nuclear bombs if processed further, which the West fears may be Iran's ultimate goal.             

Hopes for a resolution to the nuclear dispute were boosted this month with the election as president of Hassan Rouhani, who has promised a less confrontational approach to Iran's foreign relations than predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.            

As chief nuclear negotiator between 2003 and 2005, Rouhani reached a deal with European states under which Iran temporarily suspended uranium enrichment activities.               

REUTERS