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Iran announced Tuesday it has begun work to produce 20 percent enriched uranium, dismissing warnings of new sanctions from world powers who suspect the sensitive atomic work is aimed at making a bomb.

The announcement drew a sharp rebuke from Moscow while the US said it added urgency to its efforts to clinch new sanctions against the Islamic republic.

"From today we have started the 20 percent enrichment ... in Natanz," Iran's atomic chief Ali Akbar Salehi told the official IRNA news agency.

Experts say once Iran enriched uranium to the 20 pecent level, there is nothing to stop it carrying on to the 93 percent level needed to produce nuclear weapons as the techonlogy is the same.

Iran's long-time ally Russia said the announcement raised "doubts" about the Islamic republic's nuclear intentions.

"Iran claims it is not trying to acquire nuclear weapons," Russian news agencies quoted Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of the Russian national security council, as saying.

"But actions such as starting to enrich low-enriched uranium up to 20 percent raise doubts in other countries and these doubts are fairly well-grounded," Patrushev added.

In Paris, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said US Defence Secretary Robert Gates, who was winding up a visit to France, said Washington is now aiming for a fresh UN sanctions resolution against Iran in "a matter of weeks, not months."

"(Gates) thinks that we need it and that we can do it in that time," Morrell added. "In all his meetings he discussed this sense of urgency."

The UN nuclear watchdog said a team of its inspectors was in place to monitor the stepped-up enrichment work.

"I can confirm that officials are there in Natanz today," said a spokesman for the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

"What they find and assess will be reported to the board," the spokesman added.

Iran has been conducting low level enrichment of uranium in the central city of Natanz for several years, in defiance of three sets of UN sanctions.

Western powers suspect Tehran is enriching uranium to make atomic weapons as the material in high purity form can be used in the fissile core of a nuclear bomb. Iran says its nuclear programme is for civilian purposes only.

Salehi in his announcement said the project involved the use of 164 centrifuges -- the devices which rotate at supersonic speed to enrich uranium.

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"This can make between three to five kilograms (6.5 to 11 pounds) of 20 percent enriched uranium per month for the Tehran reactor," he said, referring to Iran's internationally-supervised facility which produces medical isotopes.

Salehi said the production is "twice" the needs of the reactor and the "20 percent enriched uranium will be transformed into fuel plates" at the Isfahan site.

The West is trying to convince Iran to sign on to an IAEA-brokered deal that envisages Tehran being supplied with nuclear fuel for the reactor in exchange for its low-enriched uranium (LEU).

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The deal has hit a roadblock as Tehran, although saying it is ready "in principle" to sign on to it, insists that not all its LEU be shipped out in one go as world powers are demanding.

Foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast on Tuesday left the door open for a deal, saying the stepped-up enrichment programme did not preclude a swap deal going ahead.

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"If other countries or the IAEA meet our needs, maybe we can change our approach ... The door is not closed yet. Anytime they (world powers) are ready, this (fuel deal) can be done," he told reporters.

Mehmanparast said it was "wrong" of the two powers to seek a new UN resolution.

"These measures will not help to get out of the deadlock. They are mistaken if they think our people will back down even one step as a result of these measures."

China on Tuesday repeated a call for further dialogue with Iran.

"I hope relevant parties will step up efforts to push forward dialogue on this question," foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said in Beijing.

China urges more talks

Western powers have at the same time cast doubt on Iran's claims it can enrich uranium to that level while some experts say Tehran would need some time to master the process of building the actual fuel rods for the reactor.

Mark Fitzpatrick of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, however said the "technology for enriching uranium is basically the same whether you are enriching it at 3.5 percent for use in power reactors, or 20 percent for use in the Tehran research reactor, or 93 percent for use in nuclear weapons."

Related article:Iran capable of enriching uranium

AFP