Iran has 100 kg "enriched uranium materials"-report

TEHRAN, June 22 (Reuters) Iran has 100 kg of enriched uranium material in storage, the interior minister said, in comments likely to worry Western powers who fear the Islamic Republic is seeking to build nuclear bombs.

But a senior Iranian nuclear official cast doubt on the information. ''The figures are not correct,'' the official, who declined to be named, told Reuters.

The ISNA news agency quoted Interior Minister Mostafa Pourmohammadi as saying in a speech in southwestern Iran late yesterday: ''More than 100 kg of enriched uranium materials have been delivered to storages.'' Diplomats and nuclear analysts say roughly 500 kg of low-enriched uranium would be needed as material for one bomb but it would have to be re-introduced into centrifuge machines reconfigured to produce bomb-grade uranium.

Iran has repeatedly refused to halt uranium enrichment, a process to make fuel for nuclear power plants that can also provide material for atom bombs if enriched to a much higher degree.

Tehran says its purposes are entirely peaceful.

REUTERS SKB VV1458