Iran resumes uranium enrichment

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran removed U.N. seals on uranium enrichment equipment and resumed nuclear research Tuesday, defying demands it maintain a two-year freeze on its nuclear program and sparking an outcry from the United States and Europe.\nThe International Atomic Energy Agency said Iran plans to enrich uranium as part of its experiments with the nuclear fuel cycle. An IAEA statement issued in Vienna, Austria, said Iran told the agency the scale of its enrichment work would be limited.\nU.S. officials denounced Iran's move, calling it a step toward creating material for nuclear bombs.\n"If the regime in Iran continues on the current course and fails to abide by its international obligations, there is no other choice but to refer the matter to the Security Council," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said.\nBritain warned that the international community was "running out of patience" with Tehran, and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Iran had breached IAEA resolutions. Straw said he planned to meet his French and German counterparts Thursday to discuss whether to refer Iran to the Security Council.\n"There was no good reason why Iran should have taken this step if its intentions are truly peaceful and it wanted to resolve long-standing international concerns," Straw said.\nThe latest move came as Iran has been taking a more confrontational line with the West, with hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad recently calling for Israel to be "wiped off the map" and denying the Holocaust.\nThe United States accuses Iran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons, a charge denied by Iran, which contends its program aims only to produce energy. France, Germany and Britain have been leading long-troubled negotiations with Iran aimed at ensuring its program is peaceful.\nIran stressed it was not resuming enrichment, a key process that can produce either material for a nuclear weapon or fuel for a reactor. Instead, it said it was restarting research activities at the plant.\n"What we resume is merely in the field of research, not more than that," the deputy head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Mohammad Saeedi, told a news conference. "Production of nuclear fuel" -- which would involve enrichment -- "remains suspended," he said.\nThe IAEA statement said uranium hexafluoride -- a gaseous form of uranium -- will "be fed into cascades" of centrifuges as part of Iran's activities. That can produce low-level nuclear fuel or weapons-grade material.\nAssociated Press reporter George Jahn in Vienna, Austria, contributed to this report.