Enrichment would stop if deal implemented, says Ahmadinejad (Extra)

Feb 16, 2010, 13:24 GMT

Tehran - Iran would stop its uranium enrichment process at the level of 20 per cent if a fuel exchange deal with the world powers was implemented, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday.

'We have always said that we are even ready to export our low-enriched uranium for getting the fuel for the Tehran medical reactor and are still ready to do so, even with the United States,' Ahmadinejad said at a press conference.

'But we also said that we need this fuel by next year and if no agreement was reached, we would do it by ourselves under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency,' he told reporters.

The president said that there were proposals that Iran was still evaluating but the country would not give in to any 'political bullying' and would go ahead with its own process if no agreement was reached.

Ahmadinejad also said that the 20-per-cent enrichment process was never on Iran's nuclear agenda, including for economic reasons, but the world powers' reluctance to reach a final deal and make the swap simultaneously on Iranian soil pushed Iran to pursue the new process.