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Iran issues bank note with nuclear symbol on map

Iran issued a bank note emblazoned with a nuclear symbol, in a move seen as an assertion of the national will in the face of international sanctions over its insistence on enriching uranium.

The new note for 50,000 rials (US$5.40) also reflected rising inflation, a fact that has brought criticism of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's policies. It is worth more than twice the previously highest denomination note for 10,000 rials.

The note is printed in orange, green and blue and shows a nuclear symbol -- electrons flying around a nucleus -- on a map of Iran. A brief text next to the symbol gives a quote from Islam's Prophet Muhammad: "Men from the land of Persia will attain scientific knowledge even if it is as far as the Pleiades." The Pleiades is a cluster of stars.

In conformity with the law, the new note also bears a portrait of the the father of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

State television on Monday said the Central Bank had issued 6 million of the new notes, and will introduce another 6 million within the next two weeks.

The nuclear program is a source of national pride in Iran. Even government opponents support the program.

However in recent months, reformists and conservatives have criticized President Ahmadinejad's harsh rhetoric, saying it has brought more harm than good.

The US and some of its European allies have accused Iran of seeking uranium enrichment as a part of a secret program to build nuclear weapons.

Enriched uranium is used as fuel in nuclear reactors but, enriched to a higher level, it is used in atomic bombs.

Iran denies that it is trying to build nuclear bombs, saying its program is strictly limited to generating electricity.
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