A top Iranian official has confirmed on Tuesday that Iran had enriched uranium up to 4.8 percent purity, the ISNA news agency reported.

"Iran has successfully produced enriched uranium up to 4.8 percent. This level can satisfy Iran's demand to produce nuclear energy fuel," Chairman of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization Gholam Reza Aghazadeh was quoted as saying.

"Purity of more than 5 percent is not on agenda now," he said, but adding Iran will deploy more than 3,000 centrifuges to upgrade enrichment work soon.

Aghazadeh also revealed that Iran had built a new uranium mine in southern Iran, saying the estimated production capacity could be 30 tons yellow cakes each year.

"Iran has comprehensively searched its uranium sources and we predict these substance would be found in provinces such as Azerbaijan and North Khorasan and areas such as Central Iran and Bandar Abbas," he added.

When referring to Mohamed ElBaradei's report, he said the UN Security Council and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) seemed unaware that Iran's nuclear issue could only be resolved through mutual trust.

"Iran's ongoing nuclear program is irreversible. The only way to solve this issue is through removing each other's worries," he noted.

On April 11, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad officially declared that Iran has gained ticket to join global nuclear club by having produced 3.5 percent enriched uranium from 164 centrifuges in the central town of Natanz, a technological leap in the process for nuclear power plant construction.

Enrichment is the process for manufacturing fuel for civil nuclear power devices but uranium more than 90 percent purity can also be used to build an atomic bomb.

ElBaradei submitted a report last Friday to the UN Security Council, saying Iran had ignored a non-binding demand to suspend all uranium enrichment before last Friday's deadline.

The IAEA has prompted calls from Western powers for tougher Security Council action against Iran.

Foreign ministers of five permanent members of the UN Security Council -- the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China -- plus Germany are scheduled to meet in New York on May 9 to discuss response to ElBaradei's report.

Source: Xinhua