Iran Cranks Up Uranium Facility

(AP) Iran resumed uranium conversion activities Monday at a nuclear facility in central Iran, a step that Europeans and the United States warned would prompt them to seek U.N. sanctions against Tehran.

The government has reopened a nuclear facility, despite surveillance cameras installed by the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency. The U.S. and Europe have threatened to press for U.N. sanctions against Iran if it resumed such activity.

The facility near Isfahan that reopened Monday, converts raw uranium into gas, which is part of the enrichment process. It can be used for energy, or further processed to make a nuclear weapon. Work resumed there after inspectors from the U.N. nuclear watchdog finished installing surveillance equipment there and seals on equipment were removed.

Iran had suspended work at the plant and its other nuclear facilities in November to avoid U.N. sanctions and as a gesture in negotiations with the Europeans.

The resumption escalates a confrontation between Iran and the West over its nuclear program, which the Europeans have been trying to convince the Iranians to sharply limit. But Iran on Saturday rejected European proposals for it to curtail the program in return for economic incentives.