. . . Meanwhile, Iran "Doubles Enrichment Capacity"

Iran is taking steps toward enrichment of uranium and away from negotiations with the U.S., Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China by starting a second cascade of centrifuges to enrich uranium, doubling its nuclear enrichment capacity. The report came from the quasi-official ISNA news agency in Iran.

President Bush called the reports "speculation," and restated that "the idea of Iran having a nuclear weapon is unacceptable, and it’s unacceptable to the United States and it’s unacceptable to nations we’re working with in the United Nations to send a common message." He also stated that the world must "double our effort" to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, in a parallel to Iran's announcement it was doubling its nuclear enrichment capacity.

In France, Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei stated that this was a "new signal" and a "negative signal" that would be considered in dealing with the Iran "dossier."

In Russia, defense minister/deputy Prime Minister Sergey LIvanov stated that he was not concerned by Iran's starting of a second set of centrifuges because the process was announced publicly and confirmed by the IAEA, and only being operated in "test mode," not performing enrichment. Lavrov stated that "It is at least premature to talk about uranium enrichment in Iran."

I haven't been able to figure out what the governments of Britain, Germany, or China have to say about this new development.