This Article is From Oct 18, 2009

Iran to seek guaranteed nuclear fuel supply

Tehran: Iran will enter Vienna talks with big powers Sunday seeking a guaranteed supply of 20 per cent enriched uranium, insisting that it will make up any shortfall by domestic production, experts and officials say.

Iranian observers say Tehran will also today attempt to further allay concerns over its atomic programme, which global powers suspect is aimed at making nuclear weapons, a charge strongly denied by the Islamic republic.

Officials from Iran, the UN atomic watchdog, and France, Russia and the United States will meet in Vienna to discuss how to offer the 20 per cent enriched uranium to fuel a research reactor in Tehran.

The meeting is the result of October 1 talks in Geneva, at which Iran agreed to ship 3.5 per cent low-enrichment uranium abroad for further purification and subsequent return to Iran.

Enriched uranium is the most controversial aspect of Iran's atomic programme, as it can be used as fuel for a nuclear reactor or to make atomic bombs in purer forms.

"At the Vienna meeting, Iran will seek guaranteed supply of 20 per cent enriched uranium according to a tight time-table," said Mohammad Reza Mohammad Karimi, associate editor of the English-language Iran Daily newspaper.

"Iran will go for concrete agreements. If there are no unforeseen hurdles, then the meeting is expected to yield good results."

Iranian officials have said Tehran would enter the Vienna talks with good diplomatic leverage as it is able to manufacture nuclear fuel on its own.
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