Iran owns 10 percent of French nuclear fuel plant

PARIS (Reuters) - A French plant that produces a quarter of the world's enriched uranium is 10 percent owned by Iran, which has had the stake for more than 30 years, nuclear reactor maker Areva said on Tuesday.

Confirming a press report in a French satirical weekly, state-controlled Areva said it owned the remainder of the Eurodif plant, which was commissioned in the early 1970s.

The weekly Le Canard Enchaine said in its edition to be published on Wednesday that the Shah of Iran struck a deal in the early 1970s when the country was turning toward nuclear energy to cut dependence on its oil production.

"Iran has never received a single gram of enriched uranium from France," an Areva spokeswoman said.

"Iran is a sleeping partner in Eurodif," she said, adding there had been no technology transfers to the country which has been under U.N. sanctions since 2007 over its disputed atomic program.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, U.S. President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown last week accused Iran, at a Group of 20 summit in Pittsburgh, of building a secret nuclear fuel plant for several years.

The Western leaders demanded Tehran comply with international rules on nuclear non-proliferation.

"This stake has never been hidden and there is complete transparency on shareholding," the Areva spokeswoman added.

(Reporting by Muriel Boselli; editing by Michael Roddy)