Iran defiant over nuclear fuel work

IRAN yesterday said there was no going back on its decision to restart nuclear fuel work, a move European leaders said could scupper negotiations on the country's atomic ambitions and spark an international crisis.

Two years of hard bargaining between the European Union and Iran over its nuclear programme looked close to breaking point with the EU coming round to the United States' view that Tehran should be referred to the United Nations for possible sanctions.

"I think this Iranian affair is very serious and that it could be the start of a major crisis," said Philippe Douste-Blazy, the French foreign minister.

Gerhard Schrder, the German chancellor, said Iran's decision to resume its nuclear activities was threatening and urged Tehran to change course.

The US says Iran is trying to build a nuclear arsenal under the veil of a civilian atomic fuel programme. Iran says it only wants to build nuclear power stations.

The so-called EU3 of Britain, France and Germany had been due to offer Iran nuclear, political and economic incentives to freeze its nuclear fuel activities indefinitely.

But Iran insists that the EU recognises its right to enrich uranium, something the union has so far refused to do.

Iranian officials said they had grown impatient with what they called EU time-wasting and rejected the offer even before it had been made.

As the diplomatic row intensified yesterday, police reported that Masoud Moqadasi, an Iranian judge who sentenced several reformist dissidents to jail, including the hunger-striking reporter Akbar Ganji, was shot dead in his car by a lone gunman riding a motorcycle.

Elsewhere in the capital, a small bomb exploded outside the offices of British Airways, BP and DaimlerChrysler. There were no casualties, witnesses said.