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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sig who wrote (97592)	5/7/2003 11:19:17 PM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 281500

New U.S. Concerns on Iran's Pursuit of Nuclear Arms By STEVEN R. WEISMAN WASHINGTON, May 7 - The Bush administration is concerned that Iran has stepped up its covert nuclear program, and the government is now seeking broad international support for an official finding that Tehran has violated its commitment not to produce nuclear weapons, officials said today. The officials said that the United States was pressing nations that sit on the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which oversees peaceful nuclear programs, to declare that Iran has violated the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which it has signed. Such a finding could lead to punitive action by the United Nations, adding pressure on Iran, which is already nervous about American troops in Iraq, the officials said. The atomic energy agency is to meet on the matter next month. Administration officials also said today that a new intelligence assessment had led them to conclude that North Korea may have resumed production of small amounts of plutonium, which could be used for nuclear weapons. Previously, intelligence officials had assured the White House that no plutonium was being produced there. [Page A16.] While the North Korea situation has received more public attention recently, in part because it has acknowledged its nuclear ambitions, administration officials said that Iran was an equally urgent problem because its program is further along than previously thought. "It's not just that Iran is speeding up its nuclear plans," an administration official said. "It's also that we've only recently learned some things about their program that have been going on for two years. There's also a lot of hammering from the Israelis for us to take this problem seriously." REST AT:http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/08/international/asia/08DIPL.html?pagewanted=print&position=