VIENNA ( Reuters):The United Nations nuclear watchdog declared yesterday that Iran had failed to meet a February 21 deadline to suspend uranium enrichment.
In response, Washington has said major powers would meet next week to draft a new Iran sanctions resolution.
By ignoring the deadline, Tehran reaffirmed its rejection of a mid-2006 offer by six world powers of talks on trade benefits provided it halted enrichment, a process that can yield nuclear power plant fuel or bombs.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said in a report, Iran had installed two cascades, or networks, of 164 centrifuges in its under-ground Natanz enrichment plant with another two cascades close to completion.
This amounted to an effort to escalate research-level enrichment of nuclear fuel into "industrial scale" production.
"Iran has not suspended its enrichment-related activities," said the confidential IAEA report.
The United Nations Security Council imposed sanctions on Iran in a December 23 resolution that banned transfers of atomic technology and know-how to Iran. The resolution authorises the council to take further measures if Iran flouted the deadline.
Additional penalties might include a travel ban on senior Iranian officials and restrictions on non-nuclear business.
United States Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany would meet in London, on Monday, to begin drafting a second sanctions resolu-tion on Iran.
"We expect to see Iran repudiated again by the Security Council for its decision to defy U.N. demands that it suspend enrichment of uranium," Burns said during an appearance at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think tank.
The Islamic Republic, which says its nuclear fuel programme is designed only to produce electricity, remained defiant.
"Regarding the suspension mentioned in the report, because such a demand has no legal basis and is against international treaties, naturally, it could not be accepted by Iran,"said Mohammad Saeedi, deputy head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation.
He said the report showed the best way to resolve the dispute was to return to talks.
