Negative Blogs

China is secretly pursuing military power and missile programs in a move which could lead to conflicts with other nations, according to a Pentagon report.

The annual report said that the country’s military modernisation and its culture of military secrecy is raising the risk of “misunderstanding and miscalculation”.

It comes at a time of rising tensions diplomatic and military tensions between the US and China which suspended military-to-military contacts earlier this year following a US decision to sell arms to Taiwan. A US aircraft carrier visited Vietnam earlier this month in a show of force to remind China that Washington was not stepping back from its role in the Asia-Pacific region, safeguarding the flow oil imports to the economies of Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.

In March, Beijing announced a 7.5 per cent increase in its official military budget to about $78.6 billion (£50 billion), which remains a fraction of the $548.9bn (£351bn) that the Obama administration has requested as its core defence budget.
However a senior US defence official, outlining the report, estimated that actual military-related spending by China amounted to about $150 billion (£96 billion) in 2009.

US defence experts have raised concerns about China’s intentions in building both an aircraft-carrier capability and a new brand of ‘carrier-killing’ missile that could challenge the US’s current supremacy at sea.

The Pentagon report, which analyses Chinese military activities in 2009, said the People’s Liberation Army is “acquiring large numbers of highly accurate cruise missiles” and that the successful shooting down of an old satellite in a 2007 represented a new level of ability for the Chinese military.

China has reacted strongly to what it sees as US posturing in the South China Sea after the Pentagon announced that it would deploy an aircraft carrier into the Yellow Sea as part of joint exercises with South Korea, despite Chinese objections.

“The United States appears to want to declare to the world, ’The Asia-Pacific and the oceans remain under the United States’,” the People’s Daily said in a commentary on Tuesday.

Chinese analysts say that the Pentagon continues to be stuck in a ‘Cold War mode of thinking’ that exaggerates the threat posed by China for its own ends.

Despite the “unprecedented surge” in tensions recently, the potential for actual conflict remains low said Zhu Feng of Peking University’s School of International Studies.

“The Pentagon is fully aware that there’s a huge gap between the two countries’ military power. It a joke to claim that China is going to attack the American aircraft carriers,” Zhu said.

By Peter Foster

China considers Taiwan, where the mainland's defeated nationalists fled in 1949, to be a province awaiting reunification, by force if necessary Photo: AFP/GETTY IMAGES

The French Foreign Ministry has said the deployment of Russian S-300 air defense systems in the former Georgian republic of Abkhazia undermines stability in the region.

Russian Air Force head Col. Gen. Alexander Zelin said on Wednesday S-300 systems had been placed in Abkhazia to protect the airspace of Abkhazia and the other former Georgian republic of South Ossetia. He did not say how many S-300s had been deployed.

“We are concerned about [Russia's] announcement about the deployment of air defense systems in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. It [deployment] harms stability in the region,” a spokeswoman for the French Foreign Ministry told a news conference in Paris.

France acted as an intermediary in the settlement of a five-day conflict between Russia and Georgia over South Ossetia in August 2008.

Russia recognized Abkhazia and South Ossetia two days after the conflict, which began when Georgian forces attacked South Ossetia in an attempt to bring it back under central control.

Russia signed agreements with South Ossetia and Abkhazia earlier this year on establishing permanent military bases in the republics.

The bases are located in Gudauta, on Abkhazia’s Black Sea coast, and in South Ossetia’s capital, Tskhinvali. Each base hosts up to 1,700 servicemen, T-62 tanks, light armored vehicles, air defense systems and a variety of aircraft.

On Wednesday, the Georgian Foreign Ministry described the Russian move as “extremely dangerous and provocative,” saying it threatened “not only the Black Sea region, but European security as a whole.”

Washington later downplayed the Russian move by saying that the move was not a new development as Moscow had been deploying S-300 missiles in Abkhazia for the past two years.

By RIA Novosti

Russian S-300 air defense system

The U.S. will send a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to South Korea’s west coast in the coming months for more joint drills that have sparked opposition from China.

“Part of the sequence of exercises that we conduct will be a return of the George Washington, including exercising in the Yellow Sea,” Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell told reporters yesterday in Washington, referring to the strip of water between the Korean peninsula and China. There will be more joint maneuvers over the “next several months,” both in the peninsula’s western and eastern waters, he said.

The USS George Washington took part in July 25-28 exercises off South Korea’s eastern coast designed to deter North Korea from further provocations after the communist country was accused of sinking the South Korean warship Cheonan in March. China says it is “firmly opposed” to any threatening foreign military activities near its shores as it resists a U.S. push to scale down China’s presence in the South China Sea.

China, North Korea’s largest trading partner and political ally, has resisted blaming Kim Jong Il’s regime for attacking the Cheonan, an incident that claimed the lives of 46 sailors. South Korea remains technically at war with North Korea after their 1950-1953 civil war ended in a cease-fire.

North Korea has repeatedly threatened “physical retaliation” against the U.S.-South Korean military maneuvers since U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced the plans last month during a visit to Seoul.

No Threat

North Korea “should not feel in any way threatened by these exercises, while at the same time it should be very, very clear that further military action will not be tolerated,” Morrell said yesterday. “We’re going to hit all the various kinds of exercises that can be conducted,” including anti- submarine and bombing exercises, he added.

South Korea yesterday began its own anti-submarine drills in its western waters that are set to last for five days. Its annual joint Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercise with the U.S. will take place between Aug. 16 and 26.

Tensions between the U.S. and China over the seas between Korea and Vietnam have intensified this year. China cut off military ties with the U.S. to protest planned arms sales to Taiwan. Last month, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi sparred over China’s claims to sovereignty over almost all of the South China Sea.

At a meeting of Southeast Asian foreign ministers in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi, Clinton signaled her intent to intercede in the disputes in the region.

Yesterday, the U.S. confirmed it is in talks with Vietnam to share nuclear fuel and civilian nuclear technology, provoking an angry reaction from China.

The nuclear discussions with Vietnam underline “double standards” by the U.S. as it promotes denuclearization, the China Daily newspaper cited Teng Jianqun, deputy-director of the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association, as saying yesterday.

By Bomi Lim

Aircraft carrier USS George Washington departs Busan, South Korea, on Sunday, July 25, 2010.

In a move that is antagonizing North Korea and irking China, South Korea commenced a major naval exercise in the Yellow Sea Thursday, the largest since 46 South Korean sailors died in March in the sinking of a warship.

The five-day exercise involves some 4,500 personnel and all four branches of the military, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.

Seoul, which oversaw an international investigation into the March sinking of the Cheonan, claims a North Korean submarine sank the corvette and is demanding an apology. A multinational investigation also found North Korea responsible. Pyongyang has vehemently denied the accusation.

Prior to the Cheonan’s sinking, the South Korean navy had largely discounted the threat of submarines in the Yellow Sea, due to the shallow waters in the area.

North Korea said via state media that it would undertake “strong physical retaliation” and warned fishermen to stay clear of the Northern Limit Line, the disputed maritime border between the Koreas.

The drills amount to an “undisguised military intrusion,” Pyongyang has said.

“The army and people of the DPRK are closely watching every move of [South Korean President] Lee Myung-bak’s group of traitors. And if the puppet warmongers dare ignite a war, they will mercilessly destroy the provokers and their stronghold by mobilizing most powerful war tactics and offensive means beyond imagination,” the Secretariat of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said, according to North Korea’s state-run news agency KCNA.

“Raising issue with the legitimate, defensive exercise is a provocation in itself,” South Korean Rear Adm. Kim Kyung-sik retorted Wednesday, speaking to local reporters.

Meanwhile, China, which has refused to condemn North Korea over the alleged torpedo attack and which remains Pyongyang’s closest strategic ally, is reportedly carrying out air defense drills on its Yellow Sea coast across from the Korean peninsula.

Given North Korea’s decrepit military, experts say the chances of a naval attack on well-prepared South Korean forces are small.

“The North Koreans have to rely on asymmetric capabilities,” said Dan Pinkston, who heads the international Crisis Group’s Seoul offices. “In a straight-up fight they are not that capable.”

Deadly North Korean strikes in past years — a commando raid on the South Korean presidential mansion in 1968; terrorist bombings in 1983 and 1987; and naval clashes in 1999 and 2002 — all used the element of surprise, an element that would be difficult to spring on the large, alert force South Korea is fielding for the maneuvers.

If North Korea retaliates, it will likely be with a weapons test rather than a direct confrontation, said one expert.

“They do not do eye-for-eye, tit-for-tat responses,” said Choi Jin-wook of the Korea Institute of National Unification. “Shooting a missile or testing a weapon or some kind of diplomatic action are possible, but I don’t think there will be a military reaction.”

The exercise does not include any U.S. assets, leading some commentators to wonder whether Washington is wary of angering Beijing in the Yellow Sea.

South Korean and U.S. forces conducted exercises together in the Sea of Japan last month. Those exercises included an anti-sub infiltration component — intended to thwart a submarine attack on a ship.

If the joint exercises continue, such a move could be part of a gradual build-up of American pressure on China.

“The U.S. is slowly containing China in other places, and they could exercise in the East Sea in the future,” said the Korea Institute of National Unification’s Choi. “I think the U.S. is very deliberately pressuring China.”

The warship sinking has heightened tensions between the two neighbors who fought a war from 1950 to 1953. The war ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty, meaning the two nations are still technically at war. About 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea.

By the CNN

A South Korean destroyer drops depth charges during anti-submarine drills on Thursday.

The largest joint military exercise by the United States and South Korea in years is underway in the Sea of Japan.  These war games were called in response to North Korea’s sinking of the South Korean navy ship, Cheonan, an incident that killed 46 sailors in March. 

Throughout the day, on calm seas and under clear skies, F-18 Hornet fighter jets and other aircraft were catapulted from the flight deck of this nuclear-powered carrier.

About 200 aircraft are participating in the four-day drill, known as Invincible Spirit.  Some took part in live fire exercises.  For the first time, an exercise here also includes four of the U.S. Air Force’s most advanced fighters, F-22 Raptors.

In the sea are 20 American and South Korean naval vessels, advancing no closer than 200-kilometers south of the maritime boundary with North Korea in the eastern sea. 

In the Command Direction Center of the aircraft carrier, U.S. Navy Commander Peter Walczak says the exercise is similar to what routinely occurs on the carrier, except for the additional component of cross-training with South Korean forces.   A key component in the drill is detecting enemy submarines and defending against them. 

North Korea’s threat to unleash a nuclear attack in response to the joint war games, Commander Walczak says, is not causing undue alarm for the U.S. 7th Fleet.

“The only extra precaution is that, maybe, were more observant to what is going on in the area.  A little more sensitive to intel reports, what have you.  The ship itself, the airplane flying, the schedule, it is pretty much what we do with standards operations.  Our alert posture is not necessarily any higher than any other time during normal operations,” he said. 

The carrier’s strike group is under the command of Rear Admiral Dan Cloyd.  He calls the current exercise, “purely defensive in nature” and says there’s no reason for North Korea to be provocative.

“Our intent is to improve defense capabilities in areas such as anti-submarine warfare, air defense and anti-surface warfare,” Cloyd said. “Our intent is not to provoke reactions from any nation, be it North Korea, or any other here in the Western Pacific region.”

North Korea denies responsibility for the sinking of the Cheonan in the Yellow Sea on March 26.  The incident has escalated tension on the Korean peninsula, which, on Tuesday, marks the 57th anniversary of the armistice that halted the Korean War.  The two sides have yet to sign a peace treaty.

By Steve Herman

The aircraft carrier USS George Washington (CVN 73) departs Busan, Republic of Korea, 25 July 2010

North Korea asks to delay meeting on sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan ‘for administrative reasons’

North Korea today abruptly called off talks with the US-led United Nations Command, failing to show up for the first meeting to discuss the sinking of a South Korean warship in March.

North Korea’s military representatives asked for a delay “for administrative reasons”, the UN Command said in a statement. No new date has been set.

A joint team of investigators involving military officers and civilian experts from South Korea, the US and Sweden in May blamed the North for launching a torpedo attack on the South Korean warship Cheonan in March, killing 46 sailors.

The UN Security Council condemned the attack in a statement on Friday but did not directly blame the North. North Korea denies involvement in the sinking and has accused the South of fabricating the story for political gain.

North Korea first rejected a call by the UN Command to meet and discuss any violation of the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean war. It later changed its position and said it would agree to a meeting, after Seoul rejected its proposal to send a military team to inspect the sunken ship.

North Korea last weekend said it was willing to return to nuclear talks with regional powers that it had boycotted for more than a year. Experts said the North was trying to put the Cheonan incident behind it by offering to talk.

South Korea and the US reacted with scepticism, saying the North must show it was genuinely interested in easing tensions, first by apologising for the incident.

The foreign and defence ministers of the two allies will meet in Seoul next week to discuss strengthening security ties.

By Guardian.

North Korea has abruptly called off UN-led talks on the sinking of South Korean warship Cheonan. Photograph: Hong Jin-Hwan/AFP/Getty.

Russia criticized on Wednesday the United States’ deployment of Patriot missiles in Poland, saying the move did not help security or trust.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman said: “Such military activity does not help to strengthen our mutual security, to develop relations of trust and predictability in this region.”

A Patriot surface-to-air missile battery arrived in Monday in Poland and was to be deployed in the north of the country, close to the border with Russia’s enclave of Kaliningrad.

“We have repeatedly stated that we do not understand the logic and sense of cooperation between the United States and Poland in this sphere,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said.

“We note with regret that our questions to the Polish and U.S. sides have remained unanswered, as well as our arguments in favor of temporarily moving the deployment region as far as possible from Russian borders.”

There was no immediate hint of any retaliatory Russian move to the Patriot deployment in the Foreign Ministry statement.

The battery, manned by up to 150 U.S. troops, will be stationed for about one month four times a year in Morag, northern Poland, close to Kaliningrad. Its stated main mission is to train Polish military personnel.

Russia is wary about the deployment of U.S. troops and military hardware near its borders, though its defense ministry in January denied suggestions it might boost its Baltic naval fleet in response to the Patriot deployment in Poland.

Moscow relies heavily on its strategic nuclear missiles for defense, because of the poor state of its conventional troops, so it is particularly sensitive to any deployments of anti-missile systems such as the Patriot.

By Dmitry Solovyvov

A U.S. soldier stands next to a Patriot surface-to-air missile battery at an army base in Morag May 26, 2010.

Iran’s announcement that it has begun enriching uranium to the threshold at which it could set off a nuclear reaction drew a sharp rebuke from President Obama on Tuesday.

“Despite their posturing that their nuclear power is only for civilian use, they in fact continue to pursue a course that would lead to weaponization and that is not acceptable,” Obama said in a surprise appearance at the White House daily press briefing.

“We have bent over backwards to say we are willing to have a constructive conversation” with Iran about its nuclear program, he said.

He was speaking hours after Iran’s announcement, which followed through on a warning it had issued a day before.

The enrichment was taking place at its Natanz facility under the surveillance of U.N. nuclear watchdog inspectors, Iran state media said.

An official with the International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed that a team of its inspectors was on site.

The United States and its allies think Iran intends to build a nuclear bomb. Tehran says its nuclear program is for civilian energy and medical use.

This latest step, Iran said, is being done to meet the demands of the country’s cancer patients.

Obama said the international community had made an offer to supply Tehran with its medical needs and “they rejected it.”

Now the United States and its allies are “developing a significant regime of sanctions that will indicate to them how alone they are,” he said.

Obama said negotiations on proposed sanctions for Iran “are moving along.”

One of the difficulties of dealing with Iran, Obama said, is that “it’s not always clear who is speaking on behalf of the government” in Tehran.

The European Union said just before Obama spoke that Iran’s latest move decreased international trust in the regime.

Ramping up uranium enrichment “adds to the deficit of confidence in the nature of Iran’s nuclear program,” EU foreign policy representative Catherine Ashton said in a statement Tuesday. “This has already been aggravated by Iran’s unwillingness to engage in meaningful talks.”

Ashton also dismissed Tehran’s explanation that it needs to enrich uranium for medical purposes.

To use the uranium to help cancer patients “requires construction of fuel assemblies for which we do not believe that Iran has either the technical knowledge or the intellectual property rights,” she said.

“As things stand it seems unlikely that on its own Iran will be able to refuel the Tehran Research Reactor,” she said. “We continue to find it difficult to understand why Iran has not taken up the proposed agreement with the IAEA, which would have solved all these problems.”

Russia, a key player in the negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program, also expressed some frustration Tuesday.

A top Russian security official said that although his country still favors a “political-diplomatic” settlement, “everything has its limits, and any patience may come to an end.”

“Iran asserts that it doesn’t seek nuclear weapons and is developing a peaceful atomic energy program. But the actions it undertakes, including its decision to enrich its low-enriched uranium to 20 percent — those actions are causing other countries to have doubts [about the nature of that program], and those doubts are quite justified,” Russian Security Council chief Nikolai Patrushev said in a news conference in Moscow, Russia.

Patrushev also said his Iranian counterpart had failed to show up for a scheduled meeting.

“I was to meet with [Saeed Jalili, the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council],” he said. “The meeting was scheduled for a time shortly before they made their announcement on the 20 percent uranium enrichment. He did not arrive. …

“We are interested in a dialogue, so that [the Iranians] could explain [to] us what’s going on. But this does not always work,” he said.

Tehran saw a relatively unusual outburst of anti-Italian and anti-French sentiment Tuesday.

About 100 people demonstrated outside the Italian and French embassies, shouting “Down with the USA, France, and Italy,” and other slogans, the Italian Foreign Ministry in Rome said.

The French Embassy was pelted with eggs and stones, while the Italian Embassy was not, Rome said.

The demonstrations lasted about 20 minutes and were peacefully dispersed by police. It was the first demonstration in Tehran outside the Italian Embassy in a number of years, the Italian Foreign Ministry said.

It was not clear why the embassies were targeted, but there were reports during anti-government demonstrations in December that the diplomatic missions took in wounded protesters.

The level to which Iran is enriching the uranium — 20 percent — is considered “highly enriched,” the U.S. National Research Council says on its Web site. That’s the threshold for uranium capable of setting off a nuclear reaction. Iran’s current uranium was enriched to a maximum of 3.5.

State-run Press TV said the country needs 126 kilograms (264 pounds) of 20 percent enriched uranium to fuel a research reactor, which produces isotopes for cancer patients and is running out of fuel.

Even as tensions rise over Iran’s decision to defy the world on the enrichment issue, Iran’s envoy to the IAEA, Ali-Asghar Soltanieh, said the window for nuclear negotiations is still open.

“If they [other countries] come to the conclusion that they had better have a cooperative environment or approach, rather than the language of threat, and they are ready to come to the negotiating table, our proposal is still on the table,” he told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Monday.

In October, the five permanent U.N. Security Council members plus Germany gave Iran a deadline of January this year to accept a deal on sending some low-level uranium out of the country for enrichment.

Tehran did not accept that deal and instead made a counteroffer, details of which have not been disclosed.

In the past, the Iranians have signaled concerns about whether any fuel they send out of the country would be returned.

Soltanieh said Iran had decided to advance its enrichment program because it had waited months for international action.

“For nine months, we have hesitated to do so because we wanted to give the opportunity for the others. We think the framework of the IAEA [is] to have some sort of international cooperation to open a new chapter of cooperation, rather than confrontation.” Home Security Systems.

Iran pressed ahead Monday with plans that will increase its ability to make nuclear weapons as it formally informed the U.N. nuclear agency of its intention to enrich uranium to higher levels.

Alarmed world powers questioned the rationale behind the move and warned the country it could face more U.N. sanctions if it made good on its intentions.

Iran maintains its nuclear activities are peaceful, and an envoy insisted the move was meant only to provide fuel for Tehran’s research reactor. But world powers fearing that Iran’s enrichment program might be a cover for a weapons program were critical.

Britain said the Islamic Republic’s reason for further enrichment made no sense because it is not technically advanced enough to turn the resulting material into the fuel rods needed for the reactor.

France and the U.S. said the latest Iranian move left no choice but to push harder for a fourth set of U.N. Security Council sanctions to punish Iran’s nuclear defiance.

Even a senior parliamentarian from Russia, which traditionally opposes Western ambitions for new U.N. sanctions, suggested the time had now come for such additional punishment

Konstantin Kosachev, head of the international affairs committee of the State Duma — the lower house of parliament — told the Interfax news agency that the international community should “react to this step with serious measures, including making the regime of economic sanctions more severe.”

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had already announced Sunday that his country would significantly enrich at least some of the country’s stockpile of uranium to 20 percent. Still, Monday’s formal notification was significant, particularly because of Iran’s waffling in recent months on the issue.

Western powers blame Iran for rejecting an internationally endorsed plan to take Iranian low enriched uranium, further enriching it and return it in the form of fuel rods for the reactor — and in broader terms for turning down other overtures meant to diminish concerns about its nuclear agenda.

Telling The Associated Press that his country now had formally told the International Atomic Energy Agency of its intentions, Iranian envoy Ali Asghar Soltanieh said that IAEA inspectors now overseeing enrichment to low levels would be able to stay on site to monitor the process.

He suggested world powers had pushed Iran into the decision, asserting that it was their fault that the plan that foresaw Russian and French involvement in supplying fuel from enriched uranium for the Tehran research reactor had failed.

“Until now, we have not received any response to our positive logical and technical proposal,” he said. “We cannot leave hospitals and patients desperately waiting for radio isotopes” being produced at the Tehran reactor and used in cancer treatment, he added.

The IAEA confirmed receiving formal notification in a restricted note to the agency’s 35-nation board made available to The Associated Press.

Iran’s atomic energy organization informed the agency that “production of less than 20 percent enriched uranium is being foreseen,” said the note.

“Less than 20 percent” means enrichment to a tiny fraction below that level — in effect 20 percent but formally just below threshold for high enriched uranium.

At the same time, the note indicated that Iran was keeping the agency in the dark about specifics, saying the IAEA “is in the process of seeking clarifications from Iran regarding the starting date of the process for the production of such material and other technical details.”

On Sunday, Iranian officials said higher enrichment would start on Tuesday.

At a news conference with French Defense Minister Herve Morin, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates praised President Barack Obama’s attempts to engage the Islamic Republic diplomatically and chided Tehran for not reciprocating.

“No U.S. president has reached out more sincerely, and frankly taken more political risk, in an effort to try to create an opening for engagement for Iran,” he said. “All these initiatives have been rejected.”

Morin said France and the U.S. agreed that there was no choice but “to work for new measures within the framework of the Security Council” — a stance echoed by Israel, Iran’s most implacable foe.

Tehran’s enrichment plans are “additional proof of the fact that Iran is ridiculing the entire world,” said Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak. “The right response is to impose decisive and permanent sanctions on Iran.”

Although material for the fissile core of a nuclear warhead must be enriched to a level of 90 percent or more, just getting its stockpile to the 20 percent mark would be a major step for Iran’s nuclear program. While enriching to 20 percent would take about one year, using up to 2,000 centrifuges at Tehran’s underground Natanz facility, any next step — moving from 20 to 90 percent — would take only half a year and between 500-1,000 centrifuges.

Achieving the 20-percent level “would be going most of the rest of the way to weapon-grade uranium,” said David Albright, whose Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security tracks suspected proliferators.

Soltanieh declined to say how much of Iran’s stockpile — now estimated at 1.8 tons — would be enriched. Nor did he say when the process would begin. Albright said enriching to higher levels could begin within a day — or only in several months, depending on how far technical preparations had progressed.

Apparent technical problems could also slow the process, he said.

Iran’s enrichment program “should be like a Christmas tree in full light,” he said. “In fact, the lights are flickering.”

While Iran would be able to enrich up to 20 percent, a senior U.S official told the AP that the research reactor would run out of fuel before enough material was produced. He asked for anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the issue.

Britain’s Foreign Office said the “enriched uranium could not be used for the Tehran Research Reactor as Iran does not have the technology to manufacture it into fuel rods.”

Legal constraints could tie Iran’s hands as well. A senior official from one of the IAEA’s 35 board member nations senior official said he believed Tehran was obligated to notify the agency 60 days in advance of starting to enrich to higher levels.

The official asked for anonymity because he was not authorized to comment on the issue.

The Iranian move came just days after Ahmadinejad appeared to move close to endorsing the original deal, which foresaw Tehran exporting the bulk of its low-enriched uranium to Russia for further enrichment and then conversion for fuel rods for the research reactor.

That plan was welcomed internationally because it would have delayed Iran’s ability to make a nuclear weapons by shipping out about 70 percent of its low-enriched uranium stockpile, thereby leaving it with not enough to make a bomb. Tehran denies nuclear weapons ambitions, insisting it needs to enrich to create fuel for an envisioned nuclear reactor network.

The proposal was endorsed by the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany — the six powers that originally elicited a tentative approval from Iran in landmark talks last fall. Since then, however, mixed messages from Tehran have infuriated the U.S. and its European allies, who claim Iran is only stalling for time as it attempts to build a nuclear weapon. Home Security Systems.

Endeavour and six astronauts rocketed into orbit Monday on what’s likely the last nighttime launch for the shuttle program, hauling a new room and observation deck for the International Space Station.

The space shuttle took flight before dawn, igniting the sky with a brilliant flash seen for miles around. The weather finally cooperated: Thick, low clouds that had delayed a first launch attempt Sunday returned, but then cleared away just in time.

“Looks like the weather came together tonight,” launch director Mike Leinbach told the astronauts right before liftoff. “It’s time to go fly.”

“We’ll see you in a couple weeks,” replied commander George Zamka. He repeated: “It’s time to go fly.”

There are just four more missions scheduled this year before the shuttles are retired.

“For the last night launch, it treated us well,” Leinbach said.

Endeavour’s destination — the space station, home to five men — was soaring over Romania at the time of liftoff. The shuttle is set to arrive at the station early Wednesday.

Zamka and his crew will deliver and install Tranquility, a new room that will eventually house life-support equipment, exercise machines and a toilet, as well as a seven-windowed dome. The lookout has the biggest window ever sent into space, a circle 31 inches across.

It will be the last major construction job at the space station. No more big pieces like that are left to fly.

Both the new room and dome — together exceeding $400 million — were supplied by the European Space Agency.

NASA began fueling Endeavour on Sunday night just as the Super Bowl was kicking off to the south in Miami. The shuttle crew did not watch the game — neither did the launch team — but it was beamed up to the space station in case anyone there wanted to watch it.

Endeavour’s launch also was broadcast to the space station residents, who got to watch it live.

Launch manager Mike Moses said he got “evil glares” in the control center for making his team report to work on Super Bowl night. He noted that the shuttle’s fuel tank was made in New Orleans. “They were at least happy with the results of the game,” he said with a smile.

The coin used in the opening toss flew to the space station in November, aboard Atlantis.

Monday morning’s countdown ended up being uneventful, except for a last-minute run to the launch pad. Astronaut Stephen Robinson forgot the binder holding all his flight data files, and the emergency red team had to rush it out to him, just before he climbed aboard. The launch team couldn’t resist some gentle teasing.

A quick look at the launch video showed a couple pieces of foam insulation breaking off Endeavour’s external fuel tank, but none appeared to strike the shuttle, officials said.

The 13-day mission comes at an agonizing time for NASA. Exactly one week ago, the space agency finally got its marching orders from President Barack Obama: Ditch the back-to-the-moon Constellation program and its Ares rockets, and pack on the research for an as-yet-unspecified rocket and destination.

NASA’s boss, ex-astronaut Charles Bolden, favors Mars. But he, too, is waiting to hear how everything will play out.

The space station came out a winner in the Obama plan. The president’s budget would keep the outpost flying until at least 2020, a major extension.

The spectacle of the night launch illuminating the sky attracted a crowd, including some members of Congress, federal big shots and European space leaders.

Endeavour shot through some thin clouds on its way into orbit, and its bright flame was visible from the launch site for seven minutes. By then, the shuttle already was up near Cape Hatteras, N.C., said Leinbach.

“We’re going to cherish this,” he said at the traditional post-launch news conference.

Within 15 minutes of taking off, the astronauts were enjoying “a beautiful sunrise” from orbit, with the moon as a backdrop. “Wish you could be here,” Zamka called down.

The four remaining shuttle flights to the station — in March, May, July and September — have daytime departures, at least for now. A significant delay could bump any of the launches into darkness. NASA has Obama’s permission to bump a mission or two into 2011 if safety needs arise.

Given all the changes coming, the mood around the launching site was bittersweet.

The manager in charge of preparing Endeavour for launch, Dana Hutcherson, said everyone was excited to be part of the first launch of the new year.

“But let’s face it, our KSC (Kennedy) team is going to have a challenging year ahead of us as the space shuttle is ending,” she said. “It’s not going to be easy for us.”

Three spacewalks are planned during Endeavour’s flight to hook up the new station compartments, beginning Thursday. The shuttle crew — five men and one woman, all Americans — will team up with the station residents to get the job done. Aboard the station are two Americans, two Russians and one Japanese.

Bolden sees that same blend of nations in NASA’s future exploration efforts, whatever they are. Hard money training.