Vienna:
Iran has revealed the existence of a secret uranium-enrichment plant, officials said on Friday, a development that could heighten fears about Iran's ability to produce a nuclear weapon and escalate its diplomatic confrontation with the West.
The New York Times reported that President Barack Obama and the leaders of France and Britain had been planning to charge Iran with constructing the facility in an announcement in Pittsburgh before the opening of the G-20 economic summit.
It said they were to demand Tehran open the plant to inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Two officials said that Iran revealed the existence of a second plant in a letter sent on Monday to International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei.
Iran is under three sets of UN Security Council sanctions for refusing to freeze enrichment at what had been its single known enrichment plant, which is being monitored by the IAEA.
The officials said that Iran's letter contained no details about the location of the second facility, when - or if - it had started operations or the type and number of centrifuges it was running.
But one of the officials, who had access to a review of Western intelligence on the issue, said it was about 160 kilometers southwest of Tehran and was the site of 3,000 centrifuges that could be operational by next year.
The New York Times reported that President Barack Obama and the leaders of France and Britain had been planning to charge Iran with constructing the facility in an announcement in Pittsburgh before the opening of the G-20 economic summit.
It said they were to demand Tehran open the plant to inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Two officials said that Iran revealed the existence of a second plant in a letter sent on Monday to International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei.
Iran is under three sets of UN Security Council sanctions for refusing to freeze enrichment at what had been its single known enrichment plant, which is being monitored by the IAEA.
The officials said that Iran's letter contained no details about the location of the second facility, when - or if - it had started operations or the type and number of centrifuges it was running.
But one of the officials, who had access to a review of Western intelligence on the issue, said it was about 160 kilometers southwest of Tehran and was the site of 3,000 centrifuges that could be operational by next year.
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