国际英语新闻：Iran not to renounce its right to enrich uranium to higher levels

TEHRAN, Oct. 22 (Xinhua) -- Head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, Ali Akbar Salehi, said Thursday that Iran will not renounce its right to enrich uranium to higher levels, the state IRIB television reported.

    "Enrichment to 5 percent is the highest level that we want for our reactors. But that does not mean that we will renounce our right to enrich uranium level to a higher level" Salehi was quoted as saying.

    "Tehran will not give up its undeniable rights (to enrich uranium to higher levels)," Salehi told reporters.

    "There is actually no need for us to enrich uranium to more than 4 or 5 percent purity as the reactors that we use need uranium enriched to a maximum of 5 percent," he said, adding that "Iran has the capability to enrich uranium to 20 percent but prefers to obtain the fuel from abroad."

    Representatives from Iran, the United States, Russia, France and The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) met in Vienna from Monday to Wednesday to discuss the nuclear-fuel supply for a research reactor in the Iranian capital of Tehran, Ma said.

    The four countries in the nuclear-fuel talks agreed to conduct a feasibility review of proposals advanced by El Baradei.

    On Oct. 1, senior officials from the United States, Britain, Russia, France, Germany and China held talks with their Iranian counterparts in Geneva.

    At the meeting, Iran agreed in principle to ship most of its existing low-grade enriched uranium to Russia and France, where it would be processed into fuel rods with a purity of 20 percent.