Salehi: Iran to Announce Its Progress In Nuclear Field Soon

Iran's Atomic Chief Ali Akbar Salehi declared on Tuesday that Iran is to produce nuclear fuel for a research reactor by September 2011.

"By the month of Shahrivar next year (September 2011), we will produce fuel for the reactor," Salehi said, quoted by the state IRNA news agency.

In February, Iran started refining uranium to 20 percent after a deadlock in a nuclear fuel swap deal drafted by the UN atomic watchdog and aimed at providing fuel for the Tehran medical research reactor.

Iran has already said that by next September it will domestically produce the required fuel and the actual fuel plates to power the reactor.

Salehi said on Tuesday that Iran would make an announcement on its progress in the nuclear field "two to three weeks" after the meeting with world powers, Mehr news agency reported.

Iran and a group of six world powers -- Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States -- are to hold talks on Tehran's overall nuclear program in December.