VIENNA, Feb 20: Western diplomats who follow the UN nuclear agency are increasingly certain Iran had an atomic weapons programme after recent reports that essential components had been found for making nuclear fuel or nuclear bombs.

Diplomats on the nuclear agency's governing board and a US official said on Thursday UN inspectors in Iran had discovered components which were usable in advanced centrifuges for extracting enriched uranium.

Tehran repeated on Friday it had no such equipment, contradicting multiple reports that the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had discovered such technology.

"There was a report that they found (advanced P2 enrichment centrifuge) parts in some military base, which was not true," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said.

"What we have is a research project that hasn't been implemented yet. There are no (P2 centrifuge) parts in any place in Iran. They are just trying to create a fuss about this." But one diplomat said the UN inspectors had found several assembled centrifuges based on the "P2" design, which is a Pakistani version of the European-developed "G2" centrifuge.

"The centrifuges were apparently assembled but the Iranians say they never put uranium into them," the diplomat said. Several Western diplomats dismissed the Iranian denials.

"The aggregate of evidence clearly demonstrates that Iran is pursuing a covert nuclear programme in the best case and in the worst case a covert weapons programme. The evidence points to the latter," a diplomat said.

The circle of diplomats who agree with the US line that Iran has a nuclear weapons programme appears to be widening, with even some non-Western diplomats saying it was becoming increasingly difficult to give Tehran the benefit of the doubt. -Reuters