Iran may increase amount of production of 20% enriched uranium+

TOKYO, Feb. 25 Kyodo - Iran's visiting parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani suggested Thursday his country may increase the amount of production of 20 percent enriched uranium to supply fuel for its medical research reactor if it cannot receive the fuel from other countries.

''It depends on whether the other countries would offer fuel,'' he said during
an interview with Kyodo News in Tokyo, while adding Iran ''would have to take
certain measures'' if it face new economic sanctions.
Earlier in the month, Iran began enriching uranium to 20 percent purity, a
higher scale than before, to supply fuel to the reactor in Tehran, triggering
criticism from the United States and Europe.
''We do not have to produce (the 20 percent enriched uranium) on our own if it
is supplied,'' Larijani said. ''There are 850,000 patients who need medicine
(provided by the reactor).''
Sources close to Japan-Iran relations said Japan proposed to Iran at the end of
last year an idea to serve as a mediator to facilitate negotiations involving a
draft proposal presented by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The IAEA proposal was to transfer the bulk of Iran's low-enriched uranium out
of the country with the aim of converting it into fuel for use in the research
reactor. The low-enriched uranium is seen as a nuclear weapons risk.
Japan's proposal was to accept Iran's low-enriched uranium, according to the
sources.
Referring to the friendly ties between Japan and Iran, Larijani said, ''If
talks can continue, everything is worth discussing.''
Larijani, meanwhile, said Iran has no need to pursue a level of enrichment
higher than 20 percent, adding, ''We have no intention of having a fight (with
other countries).''
Larijani is known to have close ties with Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei. He is visiting Japan at the invitation of Japan's House of
Representatives Speaker Takahiro Yokomichi.
==Kyodo