Iranian officials trumpeted new nuclear and military ambitions Monday in the face of domestic political discord and stepped up international talk of tightening economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, announced that Tehran has informed the United Nations' nuclear watchdog that it intends to launch construction of 10 new nuclear fuel plants in the Persian calendar year starting March 2010 and begin producing 20% enriched uranium to provide fuel for a Tehran medical reactor.

Up until now, Iran has only produced reactor-grade 3.5% enriched uranium and has managed to build only one functioning nuclear fuel plant.

"The 20% enrichment begins on Tuesday under supervision of inspectors and observers from the International Atomic Energy Agency," or IAEA, Salehi said in an interview published on the website of Iran's state-owned Al-Alam television news channel.

As of Monday morning, diplomats and arms inspectors in Vienna, home to the IAEA, had yet to receive anything in writing, said an official in the Austrian capital who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Western diplomats have vowed to pursue tougher sanctions on Iran to pressure it into curbing sensitive components of its nuclear and missile programs that they suspect are the cornerstones of an eventual atomic weapons capability.

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