Iran installing 3,000 nuclear centrifuges

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran is installing 3,000 nuclear centrifuges, a senior Iranian member of parliament was quoted as saying on Saturday, defying U.N. calls for Tehran to suspend uranium enrichment.

"We are now installing 3,000 centrifuges," Alaeddin Boroujerdi, the head of parliament's foreign affairs and national security committee, was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency.

The centrifuges would allow Iran to begin industrial scale of nuclear fuel, which the West fears could lead to atom bombs.

Boroujerdi's remarks followed reports earlier this month from diplomats, who said inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency had concluded that Iran was ready to start installing the centrifuges.