Leaked intelligence says Iran seeking nuclear materials

LONDON -- One day after Iran publicly confirmed it would resume nuclear research, a newspaper reported yesterday that Tehran has been seeking components and know-how in Europe for nuclear weapons and missiles.

Iran responded quickly to the front-page report in the Guardian newspaper based on a leaked European intelligence document. A Foreign Ministry spokesman said the story was intended to harm Iran's ''transparent" efforts to obtain civilian nuclear power.

The Tehran government says it hopes to produce nuclear fuel for power-generating purposes only, but European governments and the United States have long feared Iran also is focused on obtaining means to create nuclear weapons. Representatives of Britain, Germany, and France have been negotiating with Iran for more than a year to accept limits on its nuclear activities.

According to the Guardian, reporters were allowed to see a 55-page intelligence document drawing on findings of British, French, German, and Belgian security agencies and assessing the Iranian nuclear activities.

Dated July 1, the document concluded that Iran has been combing Europe for parts for weapons and a ballistic missile capable of reaching Europe, and that ''import requests and acquisitions (are) registered almost daily," the Guardian reported.

The newspaper said the document may have been leaked in response to mounting frustration at Iran's refusal to bow to Western calls to give up its program to produce fuel for its Bushehr nuclear power plan.

The power plant on Iran's southern coast originally was planned before the Islamic Revolution in 1979. It has been under construction over the past decade with Russian help and now is nearing completion.

''In addition to sensitive goods, Iran continues intensively to seek the technology and know-how for military applications of all kinds," the Guardian quoted the document as saying.

The paper did not say who made the document available to its reporters, but said that it was produced for European governments so that they could warn industrialists to be careful about what they sell or export to Iran. It said that Iran is using a network of front companies and agents to shop for technology in Europe and the former Soviet Union.

Iran said Tuesday that it would resume nuclear fuel research next week and that it had informed the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna of its decision. Iran delivered a letter to the IAEA saying its nuclear body planned to resume research and development on its ''peaceful nuclear energy program" on Jan. 9, ending a voluntary suspension of such activities since late 2003.

''Research has nothing to do with nuclear fuel production and is a separate issue," Mohammad Saeedi, deputy director of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, told Iranian state television.

Asked about the Guardian report, an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman told the Reuters agency that the story was intended to ''negatively affect Iran's transparent measures and its cooperation with the IAEA."

Iran had already resumed work to convert raw uranium into gas in August, and the announcement Tuesday was seen as raising the stakes before another round of negotiations with European diplomats scheduled Jan. 18.