TEHRAN, April 8: Iran has begun installing 6,000 new centrifuges at its uranium enrichment plant in Natanz, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday, a move Western nations criticised as defiance of UN demands Iran halt enrichment.

The announcement, which Western officials said could not be immediately confirmed, represented a major bid to expand enrichment, a process that can produce either fuel for a nuclear reactor or material for a warhead.

Iran currently operates 3,000 centrifuges at its underground nuclear facility in Natanz.

But Western nations appeared divided on how to respond. France called for UN sanctions already imposed on Iran to be “reinforced”. But Russia, an ally of Iran, said the West should instead put forward a new package of economic incentives aimed at persuading Tehran to halt enrichment.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged Iran to accept a deal and halt enrichment. “Iran faces continued isolation in the international community because it will not take a reasonable offer from the international community to have another way,” she said in Washington.

“The six parties have put forward, I think, a very generous set of incentives should Iran agree to live up to the obligations that any state has when a Security Council resolution is passed.”

Ahmadinejad made the announcement as he toured the Natanz facility to mark Iran’s National Day of Nuclear Technology, marking the second anniversary of when the country first enriched uranium on April 8, 2006.

On that day “Iran stepped into a path that will put the country in a more deserving position in the world,” Ahmadinejad said, according to state-run television.

“The president announced the start of the phase of installing 6,000 new centrifuges in Natanz,” state television reported. It also quoted Ahmadinejad as saying “we have reached new achievements” in Natanz that he would announce in a speech planned for later.—AP