Iranian President Mohammed Khatami pledged on Tuesday to forge ahead with the construction of a nuclear power plant, but rejected claims that it might be used to develop nuclear weapons. Khatami, who is visiting Pakistan, said Iran would be happy to send any spent fuel rods - a potential source of fissionable material - abroad for reprocessing.

"We have no problem with sending the nuclear waste and uranium waste to other countries," Khatami told a joint news conference with Pakistani Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali. "We are not insisting on keeping them in Iran, where they could also pose an environmental problem."

Iranian officials in the past have insisted that the nation's nuclear facilities are for peaceful purposes, even though it canceled a U.N. inspection of two sites in mid-December.

Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency, is scheduled to visit Iran in February.
The Bush administration has accused Iran of sponsoring terrorism and labeling it, along with Iraq and North Korea , part of an "axis of evil."

The U.S. government has strongly criticized a nuclear plant that the Iranians are building with Russian help at Bushehr in southern Iran, saying it could advance Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program. Iran has said the plant will be used only to generate power.

"We are very happy that we are going to have that nuclear power plant in Iran, and we are going to develop it for energy and peaceful purposes, I repeat, peaceful purposes," Khatami said in response to a reporter's question.

Khatami noted that "we believe that atomic and nuclear arms are not going to ensure the peace and security of any country," but that instead of focusing on recently emerged nuclear powers like Pakistan - another target of U.S. criticism - critics should turn their attention to Israel.

"We believe that these countries should press the Zionist regime in Israel, which has been rumored to have hundreds of nuclear weapons ... and which is a threat to international peace and security," Khatami said.

PHOTO CAPTION

Iranian President Mohammad Khatami , left, talks with Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf, center, as Pakistani Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali, right, accompanies them, during an official welcoming ceremony at the Presidential Aiwan-e-sadr Palace in Islamabad, Pakistan, Monday Dec. 23, 2002. Khatami arrived to Pakistan on Monday for an official three day visit.(AP Photo/Hasan Sarbakhshian)