A senior Iranian lawmaker Saturday said that his country is installing 3,000 nuclear centrifuges, Iran's official IRNA news agency reported.

"We are now installing 3,000 centrifuges," Alaeddin Boroujerdi, chief of parliamentary national security and foreign affairs, was quoted as saying.

He also said that the installation "stabilizes Iran's capability in the field of nuclear technology."

"Inshallah (God willing), it will be completed in due time," Boroujerdi said, without elaborating on details of the installation work.

Iranian officials have said that Iran plans to install 3,000 centrifuges for uranium enrichment at a plant in Natanz in central Iran by the end of the current Iranian year, which ends on March 20.

According to Iran's announced plan, it will eventually have 60, 000 centrifuges for uranium enrichment. The country also has an ambitious plan to build 20 nuclear power plants.

Uranium enrichment at low levels can be used to produce fuel to generate electricity but at higher levels can be used to make atomic bombs. Iran has already claimed that it has enriched uranium to levels of around 5 percent.

In another report, IRNA said that three International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors arrived in Iran late Friday to inspect the country's nuclear facilities in Isfahan and Natanz.

A reliable source told IRNA on Saturday that the inspectors will carry out routine inspection of Iran's nuclear facilities in their week-long mission.

Their visits came after Iran announced on Monday that it had decided not to allow 38 IAEA inspectors to enter the country, and it had been officially communicated to the UN atom agency.

Iran insisted that it, as a member of IAEA, has the right to allow or bar the UN nuclear watchdog's inspectors from visiting their territory.

The UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1737 on Dec. 23, 2006, demanding Iran to "suspend all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities, including research and development, and work on all heavy water-related projects."

However, Iran has rejected the resolution as an "illegal measure" and vowed to continue the country's nuclear programs.

Source: Xinhua