World should adapt to Iran atom advances: ElBaradei

By Mark Heinrich

VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran's progress in enriching uranium has rendered unrealistic world powers' quest to prevent Tehran from gaining nuclear expertise, the director of the U.N. atomic watchdog agency said.

Mohamed ElBaradei said Iran was obliged to heed a U.N. Security Council demand that it suspend enrichment in exchange for a suspension of sanctions against it and talks on a solution that would allay suspicion Tehran is trying to build atom bombs.

"But from a proliferation perspective, the fact of the matter is that one of the purposes of suspension -- keeping them from getting the knowledge -- has been overtaken by events," the International Atomic Energy Agency chief said in remarks published by the New York Times and confirmed by an IAEA official.

Iran has ramped up its program from the research level since the start of 2007, installing more than 1,600 enrichment centrifuges, divided into 10 fuel-cycle "cascades", or networks, in an underground complex by the start of May, diplomats said.

Tehran has been hooking up one cascade every week or so and intends to have 3,000 operational by next month to lay a foundation for "industrial-scale" enrichment, they said.

Speaking a week before an IAEA report on Iran to the Security Council, ElBaradei said it would be more sensible to cap Iranian enrichment short of industrial scale rather than try to freeze it altogether.

"Until all outstanding verification issues are clarified, and the agency is able to verify the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program, the focus should be to stop them from going to industrial scale production, to allow us to do a full court press inspection and to be sure they remain inside the (nuclear Non-Proliferation) treaty."

Citing a sovereign right to nuclear energy for economic development, Iran has ruled out an atomic halt before, during or as an outcome of negotiations. It insists the enrichment program is only to yield electricity.