Nuclear quest said to be benign

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Iran's minister of finance said yesterday that his country's quest for nuclear energy is an integral part of its plan to become a regional economic powerhouse and has nothing to do with offensive weapons.

There is intense international debate about Iran's need for an indigenous nuclear-energy program, given its oil reserves, and observers say that unemployment is more likely driving the need to open the economy.

A top Iranian nuclear official said yesterday in Tehran that the country already had processed several tons of the gas needed to enrich uranium, a necessary step toward producing nuclear fuel, or weapons.

"We have used part of the raw uranium we had. A few tons of yellowcake has been converted ," Hossein Mousavian, Iran's top delegate to the International Atomic Energy Agency told the Associated Press.

The United States repeatedly has accused Iran of trying to build a nuclear bomb and has tried to get the international community to bring Tehran before the United Nations for its nuclear activities.

Iran, a net oil producer, insists its nuclear efforts are peaceful.

"We are not interested in employing nuclear weapons," Iranian Minister of Finance Tahmasb Mazaheri said during an interview at the Iranian Interests Section in Washington. "We are just seeking the peaceful utilization of this energy [and] in fact, it has many economic impacts."

Mr. Mazaheri said that Iran was in line with the IAEA, and had opened its industry to IAEA inspectors and monitors. The U.N. nuclear watchdog has agreed that, so far, Iran does not appear to have produced any weapons-grade uranium.

Although Iran is among the world's top-10 oil producers, Mr. Mazaheri said the country wanted to diversify its energy base to support its growing economy.

"We should replace oil revenues with another source of energy, because it is a political commodity; so we should employ some other instruments to make the development of the country eaisier," the minister argued.