VIENNA/TEHRAN, Feb 19: Iran on Thursday dismissed new allegations that it was carrying out sensitive, undeclared nuclear activities at a military base. Diplomats at the UN nuclear watchdog in Vienna said UN inspectors had found components that could be used in advanced centrifuges for extracting enriched uranium, which can be used as nuclear fuel or to make an atomic bomb.

"Iran's nuclear activities are entirely peaceful and Iran has not had and nor does it have military nuclear activities," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said in a statement faxed to Reuters.

At issue is whether Iran made omissions in what it says was a full declaration of its nuclear technology to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna in October.

"This stuff should have been declared," one Western diplomat told Reuters. The daily USA Today reported that the parts had been found at a military base called Doshan Tapeh.

Diplomats said the parts were compatible with the "P2" uranium-enrichment centrifuge, a Pakistani version of the advanced Western "G2" design. But Asefi said: "In none of Iran's military centres is a nuclear programme being pursued and P2 centrifuges do not exist in such centres." There was no comment from the IAEA.

CHARGE AND DENIAL: The exchanges were the latest in a long series of allegations and denials surrounding Iran's nuclear programme, which it insists is purely for generating electricity.

US Undersecretary of State John Bolton said only last week there was no doubt that Tehran was pursuing nuclear weapons, and accused it of systematic deception.

But US officials have also made clear that Washington is in no rush to refer the matter to the United Nations Security Council, which has the authority to impose sanctions. It has left much of the running to the European Union trio of Britain, France and Germany. -Reuters