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TEHRAN - Iran's president promised today Iranians would soon hear more news about the Islamic Republic's nuclear programme, which the West believes is a covert effort to build atomic bombs despite Tehran's denials.
"The Iranian nation will soon hear fresh news about our country's nuclear transition," Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was quoted by the official IRNA news agency as saying.
He did not give details about any announcements or when the news would be released but Ahmadinejad is due to hold a news conference on Tuesday.
The International Atomic Energy Agency is pushing Iran to agree to cameras in its underground nuclear plant within days and Western states are mulling whether to seek a crisis IAEA meeting if Tehran refuses, diplomats have said.
The UN Security Council widened sanctions against Iran last week after it defied a second deadline for it to stop enriching uranium, which Iran says will yield solely electricity but world powers fear is a disguised atomic bomb programme.
Tehran, disputing any obligation to do so, has refused to let the UN watchdog set up cameras in the Natanz plant where it has installed about a third of 3,000 centrifuges it plans to have running by May to launch "industrial scale" enrichment.
The row over Iran's nuclear ambitions has been overshadowed this week by Tehran's capture of 15 British naval personnel. Some analysts have suggested Iran seized the sailors to distract world attention from the nuclear issue.
- REUTERS
