A new Iranian nuclear enrichment facility which was revealed to the world this week will soon start work, a Tehran official said on Saturday.
"This new plant, God willing, will soon become operational," said Mohammad Mohammadi-Golpayegani, who heads the office of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to the semi-official Fars News Agency.
The facility, buried in a mountain outside the city of Qom, is still under construction. It is designed to enrich uranium and could be used to produce the essential material for a nuclear weapon.
On Friday the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said that Tehran wrote to the agency on September 21, disclosing that it is building a new uranium enrichment facility.
The revelation has heightened fears that Iran is determined to develop the capacity to build an atomic weapon, although Tehran insists that it wants a nuclear programme to generate energy for a rapidly growing population.
The programme presents the West with a thorny challenge. World leaders meeting this week in the United States have been considering a response. Their options include diplomatic pressure, tougher sanctions, and in the last resort military action. One scenario is that Israel, which feels threatened by Iran, could bomb the plants.
Israel said on Saturday that this week's disclosure proved the country was seeking nuclear weapons, and demanded an "unequivocal" Western response.
"The revelations of this second nuclear enrichment site in Iran prove beyond any doubt that this country wants to equip itself with nuclear weapons," Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said.
"We hope that an unequivocal answer is given on October 1," he added, referring to next week's meeting between Iran and six major world powers involved in negotiating over the the nuclear dispute.
Israel, the region's sole if undeclared nuclear-armed state, has long accused Iran of pursuing atomic weapons under the guise of a peaceful energy programme.
Britain, the US and France have insisted that Iran must allow visits to the nuclear site.
"Iran is breaking rules that all nations must follow," said Mr Obama, He added that Iran was endangering the global non-proliferation regime and threatening the stability and security of the world.
Gordon Brown said: "The level of deception by the Iranian government and the scale of what we believe is the breach of international commitments will shock and anger the entire international community." He added that there was "no choice but to draw a line in the sand."
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