By Siavosh Ghazi
Iran has denied it was blocking UN inspectors from a key nuclear site or installing new centrifuges in defiance of UN demands to halt sensitive uranium enrichment work.
The allegations Thursday came amid growing international pressure on Iran over its controversial nuclear programme, which the West fears is masking plans to build the atomic bomb.
"Within the framework of Iran's commitment to the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency), there is no and there will be no restriction of inspectors' access," a high-ranking Iranian official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
"We have not begun installing new centrifuges," he added.
Diplomats close to the IAEA in Vienna said that Iran had begun construction of 3,000 centrifuges at its main nuclear facility in the central town of Natanz.
They also claimed Iran was stopping UN inspectors from installing surveillance cameras in the huge underground hall where the production lines, or cascades, of centrifuges are being set up.
Uranium enrichment uses centrifuges to make fuel for civilian nuclear reactors but can also produce the explosive material for atom bombs.
IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming refused to comment on the diplomats' claims.
In Washington, the US administration said the report -- if confirmed -- offered more proof of Tehran's defiant stance toward the international community.
"If true, this would demonstrate that the Iranian government continues to disregard the will of the international community and the United Nations," said US National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe.
IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei is to file a report by February 21 to the Security Council on Iranian compliance with the UN call for it to freeze all enrichment work.
The UN Security Council passed a resolution in December imposing sanctions on Iran for its refusal to freeze enrichment although the measures are not seen as far-reaching enough to hurt Iran's wider economy.
Iran last weekend gave conflicting signals on its disputed nuclear work.
The head of parliament's foreign affairs and national security commission said Iran had started to install the 3,000 centrifuges but this was later denied by the atomic energy agency.
Iran is building cascades in units of 164 centrifuges each and already has two such cascades running above-ground at a Natanz pilot plant which would only produce small amounts of enriched uranium.
But the underground plant, protected in a bunker from possible air attack, could -- if running full tilt -- produce enough highly enriched uranium for one bomb in nine to 11 months, the London think tank the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) has said.
Iran on Thursday kicked off anniversary festivities for the 1979 Islamic revolution, a 10-day celebration during which officials have promised a major announcement of progress on the nuclear front.
"Our nation has always moved in a lawful, peaceful direction and it seeks to exercise its definitive inalienable rights," President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday, referring to Iran's oft-repeated insistence that it will not halt uranium enrichment.
Tehran, OPEC's second largest oil exporter, rejects US allegations it wants nuclear weapons and insisting its atomic drive is solely aimed at producing energy.
