WASHINGTON, March 25: Iran is moving faster than expected toward enriching uranium and could manufacture enough of it to build a bomb within three years, The Los Angeles Times reported on Saturday.

Citing unnamed diplomats who have been briefed on the programme, the newspaper said new information about Iran’s programme came from diplomats representing countries on the UN Security Council, who were briefed by senior staff of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Diplomatic efforts to persuade Iran to halt its nuclear work appeared to be faltering in the face of distrust among powerful Security Council members and disagreements over the best strategy, the report said.

“We’re getting conflicting signals from the United States; it now appears they want to escalate the situation,” the paper quoted a senior diplomat in Vienna as saying. “The Russians see that as a slippery slope.”

Iran is on the verge of feeding uranium gas into centrifuges, the first step toward enrichment, the paper said.—AFP