Iran is running 3,000 atomic centrifuges-report

TEHRAN, Sep 2 (Reuters) Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said today Iran had met a planned target of installing and running 3,000 centrifuges used in enriching uranium, Iran's Fars news agency reported.

Iran had said it planned to have that many centrifuges, which are set up in interlinked networks or ''cascades'' of 164 machines each, by July. Diplomats in Vienna have said Iran appeared to have fewer than the target of 3,000 operating.

''We have more than 3,000 centrifuges working and every week a new set is installed,'' the president was quoted as saying.

REUTERS PDT PM1655