IRAN - June 10 - Putin: No Reason To Halt Nuclear Co-Operation.

At the close of the G8 summit at Sea Island in the US state of Georgia, Russian Pres. Putin says Moscow sees no reason to halt its nuclear co-operation with Tehran despite joining a G8 call for the Islamic republic to address concerns about its atomic programme. He says: "We could stop our co-operation with Tehran if Iran refuses to be transparent and co-operate with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). But for the moment, we have no reason to do that". (Putin's comments came as Tehran admitted to the IAEA to the presence of higher levels of contamination by bomb-grade uranium than previously thought and as the IAEA's board prepared to meet from June 14 on Iran's compliance with the NPT. They followed concerns by the G8 about Iran's nuclear intentions which have been spurred by repeated US allegations that Tehran is using a civilian atomic energy programme to hide illicit weapons development. G8 leaders, including Putin, said they were "deeply concerned" about Iran's compliance with IAEA requirements and stressed: "We deplore Iran's delays, deficiencies in cooperation, and inadequate disclosures". Based on its suspicions, the US has long urged Russia to stop working with Iran on its Bushehr nuclear plant, calls which have been rejected by Moscow. Iran called the G8 warning irrational and unreasonable, insisting it had done nothing wrong, and said the world's the G8 had no business trying to prevent it from having nuclear power plants. Later diplomats in Vienna said Tehran had admitted that UN inspectors had found particles of uranium enriched to 54% at an Iranian facility. The previous highest level made public in its ongoing Iran investigation was 36%. Uranium enriched to over 20% can be used to make a nuclear bomb. Despite the admission, Tehran insisted this came from imported equipment rather than from homegrown enrichment activities. IAEA officials told a technical meeting Iran had indicated to international black marketeers Tehran would purchase tens of thousands of magnets for sophisticated P-2 centrifuges that can enrich uranium to bomb-grade levels. The diplomats said the Iranians, who claim they are only doing research into centrifuges rather than trying to start large-scale manufacture of highly enriched uranium, had told the IAEA they were inquiring about such a large purchase of magnets merely to get the price down.