TEHRAN, Aug 5: Iran has no intention of suspending its atomic work and has not slowed down its disputed nuclear activities, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Sunday. “Iran's nuclear activities continue as planned and scheduled,” Mohammad Ali Hosseini told a weekly news conference.

Diplomats in Vienna told newmen on Friday that Iran's contentious nuclear energy programme seemed to have slowed in pace and that Tehran appeared well short of having 3,000 centrifuges operating by the end of July as it had planned.

Iran installed some 2,000 centrifuges during a burst of activity in the spring and proclaimed it had achieved “industrial capacity”, despite failing to overcome all glitches at a small, pilot enrichment plant, according to analysts.

The United States and other Western powers suspect Iran has a covert programme to build nuclear weapons. Iran denies it, saying its nuclear programme is only for the peaceful generation of electricity.

In an interview with the German weekly Focus released to agencies over the weekend ahead of publication, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani was quoted as saying he did not rule out the possibility of suspending Iran's nuclear enrichment work as a result of talks with the European powers.

But Hosseini said: “I have talked to Mr Larijani and this report was not a correct reflection of his comments.”

“The suspension (of uranium enrichment) is unacceptable. It is completely ruled out,” Hosseini said. Tehran resumed working with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) this month to remove outstanding issues about its atomic work to forestall a third round of more painful UN sanctions over its refusal to shelve uranium enrichment.

Western powers have quietly put off efforts to toughen sanctions against Iran over its failure to halt its uranium enrichment-related activities until September, in hopes that its cooperation with the IAEA will improve.

Hosseini repeated Iran's stance about further UN measures, saying sanctions could not force Iran to abandon its nuclear activities.

“Those countries that back such sanctions against a powerful country like Iran will be harmed more,” Hosseini said, without elaborating.

Iran has threatened to review its cooperation level with the IAEA if a harsher, broader sanctions resolution is enacted.

The IAEA and Iran are to have higher-level talks on Aug 20 in Tehran to tackle the thorniest questions about its programme, including the origin of traces of highly enriched, or bomb-grade uranium found on some equipment, and experiments with plutonium.—Reuters