The United Nations' nuclear watchdog agency has played down an unexpected announcement that Iran is to widen greatly the scope of its nuclear programme.
"This comes as no surprise to us," International Atomic Energy Agency spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said on Monday.
Her statement came a day after Iran's President Mohammad Khatami announced that the country has its own deposits of uranium and has begun extraction to produce nuclear fuel.
The United States has expressed concerns about Iran's nuclear aspirations, but Tehran says nations have "an undeniable right" to pursue nuclear programmes "for peaceful and beneficial purposes".
The US - which last year labelled Iran as part of an "axis of evil" - considers the Islamic Republic a state sponsor of terrorism and believes it is seeking to produce nuclear weapons.
Mining programme
President Khatami announced on Sunday that uranium was being mined in the Savand area, 200 kilometres (125 miles) from the historic city of Yazd, and processing facilities had been set up in the central cities of Isfahan and Kashan.
A day later, the head of Iran's atomic energy agency said construction had begun on a plant that would produce enriched uranium, a potential ingredient of nuclear weapons.
"We still have a long way to go to have this plant come on-stream," the official, Gholamreza Agazadeh, said, according to the Reuters news agency.
The IAEA spokeswoman said Iran had made its intentions clear months ago.
"The Iranians announced to us officially in September their plans to develop an ambitious nuclear power programme that would include the entire nuclear fuel cycle," Ms Fleming said.
Inspection offer
Iran has offered to let the head of the IAEA, Mohamed ElBaradei, inspect its facilities during an already-scheduled visit on 25-26 February.
The United States has expressed concern over Russia supplying nuclear technology to Iran.
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