Iran's president launched a new phase in the Arak heavy-water reactor project today, saying Tehran would not give up its right to nuclear technology despite Western fears it aims to make atomic bombs.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was speaking just days before an August 31st deadline set by the UN Security Council for Iran to halt uranium enrichment - the West's biggest worry in Iran's atomic programme - or face possible sanctions.
"No one can deprive a nation of its rights based on its capabilities," Mr Ahmadinejad said in his speech to inaugurate the heavy water project.
The Arak project, once complete, will produce plutonium as a by-product that could be used to make atomic warheads. But the reactor that will produce this is still being built.
An Iranian nuclear official had said Iran would start up heavy-water production but not the reactor. He said this unit had no military use so supervision by the UN watchdog, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), was not obligatory.
"The product of this project provides for cooling and depleting systems of the reactor, that can be used in various industries," the official said.
Iran's deputy parliament speaker, Mohammad Reza Bahonar, warned the West in comments published by Iran's Sharq newspaper today that putting pressure on the country could prompt public calls for Iran to pursue a weapons programme.
"Be afraid of the day that the Iranian nation comes into the streets and stages demonstrations to ask the government to produce nuclear weapons to combat the threats," he said.