VIENNA, Feb 1 2007 - Iran is stopping UN inspectors from installing cameras at a nuclear facility where Tehran intends to place 3,000 centrifuges for industrial-scale uranium enrichment, diplomats said Thursday.
Inspectors from the UN watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) are currently at the facility in Natanz in central Iran, where an underground site is being completed.
But the Iranians are "not allowing the IAEA to install the cameras inside the (underground) cascade halls (for centrifuges) in Natanz and are causing further delays in the inspectors' activity," a diplomat who closely monitors IAEA verification work told AFP.
This latest hitch in the international showdown with Iran over a nuclear programme, which the United States and others suspect is hiding secret development of an atom bomb, comes with the Islamic Republic under UN sanctions to force it to suspend enrichment.
Uranium enrichment uses centrifugues to make fuel for civilian nuclear reactors but can also produce the explosive material for atom bombs.
The Iranians have said they will install in a large underground site in Natanz lines of centrifuges, in so-called cascades, in order to enrich uranium.
Iran is already running two cascades of 164-centrifuges each at a pilot facility above-ground, which the IAEA monitors with cameras and visits by inspectors.
The IAEA is entitled under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to the same sort of presence at the underground facility.
"The Iranians are now willing to accept the installation of cameras only outside the cascade halls, which will not enable the IAEA to monitor the entire uranium enrichment process," said the diplomat, who requested anonymity.
The diplomat said: "This way the IAEA will only be able to see the crates that are taken into the hall and the workers coming and going.
"Uranium enrichment will nevertheless proceed inside the halls uninterrupted and unmonitored by the international community," the diplomat added.
Two other diplomats confirmed the impasse.
One said: "Whenever something new is done, normally it takes time," referring to problems the IAEA has had in setting up verification equipment in other countries.
IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming refused to comment.
The IAEA has been investigating Iran since February 2003 after it was revealed that Tehran had hid sensitive nuclear activities for 18 years.
But the atomic agency has been unable to conclude its inquest due to what it says is a lack of full cooperation from Iran.
The UN Security Council passed a resolution in December imposing sanctions on Iran for its refusal to halt uranium enrichment although the measures are not seen as far-reaching enough to hurt Iran's wider economy.
Iranian leaders have said Iran would make a major announcement on its nuclear programme during the 10 days of celebrations to mark the 28th anniversary of the Islamic revolution starting Thursday.
The news is expected to relate to Iran's progress towards enriching uranium on an industrial scale at Natanz.
Iran could be only two or three years away from being able to produce a nuclear weapon, John Chipman of the London think-tank the International Institute for Strategic Studies said Wednesday.
But he stressed that Iran still faced other obstacles before it could build a weapon.
While Iran is "probably" on track to hit a target of installing 3,000 centrifuges in Natanz by the end of March, making them function properly would be complicated, Chipman said.
These developments come amid growing speculation the United States and Iran are on a course towards conflict.
Although US President George W. Bush has said the United States has no plans to invade Iran, Washington is isolating the Iranian regime over nuclear suspicions and allegations of complicity in attacks on US troops in Iraq.
