Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday that his country right now already had 3,000 centrifuges for the uranium enrichment work, in defiance of a key UN demand of suspending it.

"Iran now has 3,000 centrifuges," Ahmadinejad addressed a large crowd in Iran's northeastern city of Birjand.

This is the second time in two months that Ahmadinejad declared the current number of Iran's centrifuges in use. In September 2, the president told some university students that Iran was already a nuclear country and had 3,000 machines in circulation, stressing the UN sanction resolution cannot force Tehran to give in.

The United Nations Security Council has imposed two sanction resolutions against Tehran's nuclear program since last December, demanding a halt of the uranium enrichment work. However, Iran's senior officials have repeatedly denied the request.

The US and Western countries have accused Iran of developing atomic weapons under a civilian cover, but Tehran said it only wants to generate electricity.

(Xinhua News Agency November 7, 2007)