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VIENNA - U.N. inspectors probing Iran's nuclear program have found equipment that can enrich uranium for weapons use and that is far more advanced than anything Tehran has previously acknowledged, diplomats said Thursday.
The find of the advanced centrifuge system is the second piece of evidence uncovered this month that casts doubt on Iran's commitment to prove it does not want atomic weapons.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the reported discovery raises "serious concerns."
Iran insisted its intentions are peaceful and that its centrifuges are to process uranium for nuclear power, not warheads. Without explicitly acknowledging the discovery, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said any advanced P-2 centrifuge system in the country was not in use but rather at a research stage.
One of the diplomats said the centrifuge was apparently at an Iranian air base outside the capital, which would strengthen the arguments of the United States and other nations that Tehran is trying to make weapons.
But several other diplomats said they did not know where the equipment was found.
Confronted by evidence last year, Iran acknowledged hiding nearly two decades of nuclear activity, including importing enrichment technology linked to the black market network of Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan.
Under international pressure last year, Tehran pledged to cooperate fully with the International Atomic Energy Agency in efforts to prove it was not interested in nuclear weapons, including opening its activities to full outside perusal.
Since then, the Vienna-based nuclear agency has dug up evidence that indicates continued Iranian secrecy.