TEHRAN, Jan 10: Iran removed UN seals at its Natanz uranium enrichment plant and resumed nuclear fuel research on Tuesday, drawing sharp Western criticism but no immediate threats of punitive action.

Tehran denies wanting nuclear technology for anything but a civilian energy programme aimed at satisfying the Islamic Republic’s booming demand for electricity.

But the United States and the European Union doubt that Iran’s atomic ambitions are entirely peaceful and are likely to ask the UN Security Council, which can impose economic sanctions, to take up the matter, Western diplomats said.

Western powers had called on Iran to refrain from any work that could help it develop atomic weapons.

“Iran’s nuclear research centres have restarted their activities,” Mohammad Saeedi, deputy head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation, told state television.

He said work at the research facilities would be under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN nuclear watchdog.

Saeedi told a news conference Iran had come to an agreement with the IAEA on what work Tehran would do. He gave no details.

The IAEA in Vienna confirmed Iran was removing UN seals at Natanz, an underground plant in central Iran that Tehran concealed from UN inspectors until an Iranian exile group revealed its existence in August 2002.

“The Iranians have begun removing seals at Natanz in the presence of IAEA inspectors,” said IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming.

Gregory Schulte, Washington’s ambassador to the IAEA, said Iran’s move showed its “disdain for international concerns”.

“The regime continues to choose confrontation over cooperation,” he said in a statement.

The European Union was quick to denounce the resumption of research, which a spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana labelled “a step in the wrong direction”.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said German diplomats would meet Solana and British and French envoys in Berlin this week to decide “whether there is now any basis for further negotiations with Iran”.

British Foreign Minister Jack Straw said: “There was no good reason why Iran should have taken this step if its intentions are truly peaceful”.

Russia, which is helping Iran build a nuclear power station at the southern port of Bushehr, said Tehran should abide by international commitments and that its decision to resume research caused concern.—Reuters