IRAN STARTS SECOND NUKE PLANT

Iran starts second atomic power plant: report
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Iran has started building a second atomic power plant in an oil-rich region near the border with Iraq, Iran's Ambassador to Russia was quoted as saying Friday by Itar-Tass news agency.

Gholamreza Ansari said construction had started at Darkhovin in south-western Khuzestan province. Iran has said it would construct a 360 megawatt plant at the site.

"Now we need to think about the fuel for it," Tass quoted him as saying at a news briefing in Moscow. A spokesman for the Iranian embassy confirmed the comment.

The United States, which has been leading a drive through the United Nations to rein in Tehran's nuclear program fearing it could be used to make weapons, said it saw no reason for a second Iranian plant.

"We would not see any need for Iran to build additional nuclear power plants. Not at all," Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said in an interview with Reuters.

US warns Iran over nuclear centrifuges (AFP)
A top US envoy warned Iran Friday that its pursuit of more advanced uranium-enriching technology would intensify the long-running international standoff over its disputed atomic drive.
"Any Iranian attempt at a more advanced centrifuge would be an escalation of Iran's ongoing non-compliance with its obligation to suspend all enrichment-related activities," the US ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Gregory Schulte, told AFP.

It would constitute a "further violation of Iran's international commitments, further reason why we are concerned about the nature of Iran's nuclear programme and the intentions of its leaders, and further reason for the Security Council to act," he said.