Iran has expanded its uranium conversion facilities in Isfahan and reinforced its Natanz underground uranium enrichment plant, a US think tank said, amid growing concern over possible US military action. Talk of a US attack has topped the international news agenda since a report in New Yorker magazine said this month that Washington was mulling the option of using tactical nuclear weapons to knock out Iran's subterranean nuclear sites.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan also warned that US military intervention in Iran was not the best solution to resolve the nuclear standoff.
The Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) said in an email with commercial satellite photos attached sent to news media that Iran has built a new tunnel entrance at Isfahan, where uranium is processed into a feed material for enrichment.
Just two entry points existed in February, it said.
"This new entrance is indicative of a new underground facility or further expansion of the existing one," said ISIS, led by ex-UN arms inspector and nuclear expert David Albright.
ISIS also released four satellite images taken between 2002 and January 2006 it said showed Natanz's two subterranean cascade halls being buried by successive layers of earth, apparent concrete slabs and more earth and other materials.
US President George W Bush has dismissed reports of plans for a military strike against Iran as "wild speculation" and said he remained focused on diplomacy to defuse a standoff over Iran's nuclear activities between Tehran and Western countries.
Pope Benedict, in a speech televised to millions of viewers in more than 65 countries at the end of Easter Sunday mass, also joined the chorus of leaders calling for a diplomatic solution to the crisis.
China's assistant foreign minister, Cui Tiankai, met with Iran's Supreme National Security Council chief Ali Larijani as well as nuclear negotiator Javad Vaidi. The visit comes in the wake of Iran's announcement that it had successfully enriched uranium to the level needed to make reactor fuel.
l Tehran is replacing 60 of its ambassadors, or around half the total, Iran's deputy foreign minister was quoted as saying yesterday, while rejecting any talk of a purge by ruling hardliners.
"Some media said the changes were due to political reasons while it is not true. Rotating the diplomats every year is natural in the foreign ministry," Mehdi Mostafavi said.
Iran's current envoy at the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Aliasghar Soltanieh, said that he was being moved to the post of ambassador to Austria.
He said present Iranian ambassador in Vienna, Mohammad Mehdi Akhondzadeh, would be the new head of mission in Berlin.
PHOTO CAPTION
A general view shows the Iranian nuclear power plant of Natanz, 270 kms south of Tehran, March 2005. (AFP)