Official airs nuclear fuel needs

       Iran needs up to 300kg of nuclear fuel to cover the requirements of a reactor in Teheran for 18 months,an official said on Saturday.
       Ali Shirzadian, a spokesman for Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, also suggested the Islamic Republic could take steps to provide the fuel itself if it did not obtain it from abroad - a development likely to worry the West.
       Western diplomats say Iran agreed in principle at Oct 1 talks in Geneva to send about 80% of its stockpile of lowenriched uranium to Russia and France for processing and return to Teheran to replenish dwindling fuel stocks for a reactor in the capital that produces isotopes for cancer care.
       Mr Shirzadian referred to it as Iran's proposal, to turn over low-enriched uranium and receive fuel refined to 20%in return, in comments carried by Isna news agency.
       "This proposal is feasible and it has been decided that the different ways of realising this goal should be discussed,"he said."The amount of fuel this reactor would need depends on the way the fuel works and it would range from 150kg to 300kg for a period of 18 months."
       It was not immediately clear how much uranium Iran would need to send abroad. Iran's low-enriched uranium stocks total around 1.5 tonnes.
       Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said yesterday inter-national powers would not wait forever for Iran to prove it was not developing nuclear bombs. Britain's Foreign Minister David Miliband, whom Ms Clinton met in London, said Iran would never have a better opportunity to establish normal ties with the world but that it had to start behaving like a "normal country".
       Iran agreed at the meeting with six world powers on Oct 1 to allow UN experts access to a newly disclosed uranium enrichment plant near the city of Qom. Ms Clinton said the meeting was a constructive beginning but added that it had to be followed by action.
       "The international community will not wait indefinitely for evidence," she said.