Iran Calls U.S. Nuclear Bomb Statement Propaganda

`All these statements regarding the production of a nuclear bomb are very baseless`, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman.

Iran on Monday dismissed as propaganda a statement by the U.S. military chief of staff that Tehran was believed to have enough nuclear material to make a bomb.

"All these statements regarding the production of a nuclear bomb are very baseless," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi said.

"It is baseless from a technical point of view and has propaganda connotations," he told a news conference.

U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen on Sunday said Washington believed Iran had enough material to make a bomb.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates later said Iran was not close to having a nuclear bomb, giving the United States and allies more time to try to persuade Tehran to abandon its suspected atomic arms programme.

Iran says its nuclear programme is a peaceful drive to generate electricity so that the world's fourth-largest crude producer can export more of its oil and gas.

Asked about Mullen's statement, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi said Gates had also said it was not correct. He noted Iran was a member of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

"We are controlled by cameras in regards to the amount and level of uranium enrichment," he said referring to monitoring by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of the enrichment plant at Natanz in central Iran.

"Anything produced at Natanz is under their supervision," Qashqavi said.

Enriched uranium can be used as fuel for power plants or provide material for bombs if refined much further.

The IAEA said in a report last month Iran had built up a stockpile of low-enriched uranium. The reported stockpile of 1,010 kg would be enough -- if converted into highly-enriched uranium -- to make a bomb, analysts have said.

U.S. President Barack Obama's administration favours diplomatic engagement with Tehran to defuse the dispute over its nuclear intentions, but has called Iran's nuclear programme an "urgent problem" the international community must address.