April 11, 2007	Wednesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 22, 1428

WASHINGTON, April 10: The United States prepares to push for more sanctions against Iran after Tehran proclaimed a major expansion of its capacity to enrich uranium.

“We are very concerned about Iran's announcement that they entered an industrial stage of nuclear fuel production,” said White House national security spokesman Gordon Johndroe.

But other US officials described Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s announcement on Monday as a “facing saving” gesture while analysts and think-tank experts said Iran’s capacity to enrich uranium is much lower than proclaimed.

“(The) announcement was all about saving face,” said Nicholas Burns, US Undersecretary of State. He said Iran was reacting to a unanimous UN Security Council resolution last month that put sanctions on Iranian banks, its arms industry and the Revolutionary Guards.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the costs to Iran were rising in lost trade and investment and “there are more on the horizon” if Iran does not halt the programme and negotiate.

Iran told the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog, in January that it would install the 3,000 centrifuges at Natanz and operate them by May.

Iran has cut back its cooperation with the IAEA since February 2006. It is resisting the agency's demands for more frequent inspections and better remote operation of cameras.

In a speech at Natanz, Iran's main publicly known nuclear site, President Ahmadinejad said Iranian scientists have installed 3,000 centrifuges in an underground facility, allowing Iran “to produce nuclear fuel on an industrial scale”.

But David Albright, a former United Nations arms inspector and president of the Institute for Science and International Security, a Washington think tank, said the number of centrifuges installed was actually about 1,000 and they were not churning out nuclear fuel. In a worst-case scenario, Mr Albright said, Iran could produce enough material for a bomb by 2009.

“The purpose (of the Iranian announcement) was to publicly state that they had the centrifuges,” said Mr Albright.

He indicated that Iran may not even want to start large-scale enrichment as it would “seriously reduce their chances of having any meaningful negotiations with the Europeans” who are leading the effort to resolve this crisis peacefully.

Washington responded sharply to Mr Ahmadinejad's statement, saying Iran's continued defiance would lead to tougher sanctions.

The last sanctions resolution, adopted on March 24, set a 60-day deadline for Iran's compliance.

State Department’s Mr McCormack declined to “prejudge” specific actions Washington would seek in addition to financial and other UN sanctions already targeting Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.

“But certainly there is a potential of more (UN) resolutions of similar type down the road,” he said.

But Mr McCormack also held out the option of a “negotiated pathway” through the crisis that would involve Western nations providing aid and other incentives -- including help developing a civilian nuclear power industry -- if Tehran suspended its enrichment programme.

Talks between the European Union's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, and Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, were due to resume soon, he said.

Analysts said that a possible compromise with the Europeans could involve Iran pursuing its centrifuge development but freezing uranium enrichment pending negotiations with the US and its major allies.