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Iran developing nuclear weapons program: Cheney

US Vice President Dick Cheney on Monday said Iran was developing a uranium enrichment program for military purposes.

"Obviously, they're ... heavily involved in trying to develop nuclear weapons enrichment, the enrichment of uranium to weapons grade levels," Cheney said in an interview with ABC television transcribed by the White House.

Cheney, however, did not mention on what information he based his accusation.

The US and its European allies have led efforts to pressure Iran into freezing its disputed uranium enrichment work, a process that can be used both to make nuclear fuel and the core of an atomic bomb.

Tehran insists its program is peaceful.

The UN Security Council recently imposed a third set of sanctions against Iran over its refusal to halt its nuclear activities.

Washington has stepped up pressure to halt Tehran's uranium enrichment program ever since a US intelligence report last December said Iran did have, in effect, a covert nuclear weapons program but that it was stopped in 2003.

The report, which the White House interpreted as confirming its suspicions about Iran's secret ambition, increased skepticism over Washington's warnings that began after the Iraq war did not yield the weapons of mass destruction the US had predicted.

Meanwhile, the head of the US Senate Banking Committee on Monday hailed a US Commerce Department decision to suspend the export privileges of a British company that had illegally shipped three US-made aircraft to Iran and was preparing to send it three more.

"There is no doubt that the Iranian government is a patron of terrorism and a weapons proliferator. We must continue to do everything we can to cut off their supply of goods and sensitive technology," Senator Chris Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, said in a statement.

He lauded work on the case by US and British authorities. But he said other countries "still are not doing enough to prevent critical goods from being shipped to Iran."

The Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security on Friday issued a temporary order suspending for 180 days the export privileges of Balli Group PLC in Britain, Blue Airways based in Armenia and Mahan Airways in Iran.

It cited evidence that the parties knowingly violated US federal export laws and made false statement about the ultimate destination and user of the aircraft.

The agency said it ordered Balli to send the three aircraft back to the US. But the company has not complied and said it would not cooperate.

Dodd's committee, which oversees foreign sanctions legislation and controls on US exports that can be used for commercial and military purposes, held a hearing on US policies toward Iran last year.

At the hearing, Dodd urged the Commerce Department to be tougher in its enforcement of export controls to stop the flow of goods and sensitive technology to Iran.
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