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China tells Iran to toe the line

China yesterday urged Iran to heed rising international concern about its nuclear ambitions, saying Beijing would seek to work with Europe and the UN to defuse the crisis.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday that his country's nuclear program was irreversible, showing continued defiance in the face of possible new UN sanctions.

He claimed that Iran now had 3,000 centrifuges to enrich uranium in its Natanz nuclear plant. Enriched uranium can fuel power plants but also, if refined further, act as material for bombs.

The number is a milestone because scientists say that in ideal conditions it is sufficient to produce enough enriched uranium in one year to make a single nuclear bomb.

Ahmadinejad has made the centrifuge claim previously, but his latest statement has been seen by some parties, particularly the US, as especially provocative as tensions have spiked recently over the issue.

Iran says its intentions are peaceful, but Western powers say the Islamic state wants the ability to make nuclear weapons and they have warned Tehran to obey a UN call to halt enrichment.

As a permanent member of the UN Security Council, China has the power to pass or veto any fresh sanctions on Tehran, but -- without outright excluding them -- Beijing has repeatedly said that negotiations can still solve the standoff.

Repeating that call for dialogue, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao (劉建超) showed growing impatience with Tehran, bluntly urging it to take a more conciliatory stance.

"We demand that Iran positively respond and pay attention to international concerns and calls and adopt a flexible attitude to solve the problem peacefully through dialogue and communication," Liu told a regular news conference when asked about Ahmadinejad's comments and possible sanctions.

Liu did not directly address the sanctions issue, merely saying that China was "willing to cooperate and communicate with the United Nations and the European Union to move in the right direction."

On Wednesday Ahmadinejad declared that Iran "couldn't care less" about UN sanction threats.

"We have taken note of the developments and we request Iran to positively respond and attach importance to the concerns of the international community," Liu said.

The US is pressing for tough new UN sanctions and has not ruled out a military strike on Iran, while Ahmadinejad recently said any such strike would face a strong response and threatened Iran could cut off Persian Gulf oil shipments.

Although it opposes a nuclear-armed Iran, energy-hungry China has consistently opposed tough action against the Mideast state.

Iran's standoff with the West has left China in a bind as Beijing seeks to balance ties with both sides.

Iran is China's third biggest supplier of imported crude oil, behind Angola and Saudi Arabia, and China also has major investments in Iran.

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