Iran is continuing to defy U.N. demands it suspend uranium enrichment, the U.N. atomic watchdog said Monday.
"Contrary to the decisions of the (U.N.) Security Council, Iran has not suspended its enrichment related activities," the International Atomic Energy Agency wrote in its latest report on Tehran's disputed nuclear drive.
The report said Iran is now operating close to 3,800 uranium gas centrifuges at its enrichment plant in Natanz, 200 more than in May when IAEA published its previous report.
Another so-called "cascade" of 164 machines was similarly up and running but wasn't being fed with uranium gas.
In addition, Iran was also testing different types of advanced centrifuges elsewhere at Natanz, the report said.
The total number therefore appears to coincide with comments made by Iran's deputy foreign minister, Alireza Sheikh Attar, last month when he said that "nearly 4,000" centrifuges were working in Natanz.
So far, the Natanz facility has produced a total of 480 kilograms of low-enriched uranium , it said.
It would need 1,700 kgs for a so-called "break-out scenario" in which Tehran would take the LEU and enrich it further for use in an atom bomb, a U.N. official said.
Enriched uranium is used to make fuel for nuclear power plants, but can also be used to make the fissile material for an atom bomb.
The U.S. and other Western countries are concerned that Iran is indeed covertly trying to develop a bomb, but Tehran vehemently rejects the charge, saying its nuclear program is geared solely towards energy generation.
Iran is under three sets of U.N. Security Council sanctions over its refusal to freeze enrichment and risks further sanctions for failing to give a clear response to an incentives package offered by six world powers in return for a halt to the sensitive work.