TEHRAN, Jan 27: Iran has started installing 3,000 nuclear centrifuges, a senior Iranian parliamentarian said on Saturday, in a new sign Tehran was defying UN calls to halt a programme the West fears is being used to make atomic bombs.

The UN Security Council imposed sanctions on Iran on Dec 23 and gave the Islamic Republic 60 days to suspend uranium enrichment, a process which can be used to make fuel for nuclear power plants or material for nuclear bombs.

Once Iran has 3,000 machines in place and running smoothly, it could make enough material for at least one warhead in a year. But Tehran says its aims are entirely peaceful.

“We are now installing 3,000 centrifuges,” Alaeddin Boroujerdi, head of parliament's foreign affairs and national security committee, was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency.

“Installing and using 3,000 centrifuges establishes Iran's strength in nuclear technology,” he said in comments to a meeting of a conservative political grouping.

Boroujerdi's remarks followed reports earlier this month from diplomats, who said inspectors from the UN watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), had concluded Iran was ready to start installing the centrifuges.

He did not give a date when installation would be completed, only saying: “By God's will, it will done by the assigned date.”

Diplomats close to the IAEA said it would take several months to have all the machines in place and operational. The United States has said Iran must suspend enrichment as a precondition for talks on its nuclear programme.—Reuters