IRAN DISMISSES U.S. DEADLINE, SETS ITS OWN DEADLINE

"... Iran dismissed an end-of-2009 deadline... to accept a U.N.-drafted deal to swap most of its enriched uranium for nuclear fuel. The deal would reduce Iran's stockpile of low-enriched uranium... Under the plan, Iran would export most of its stockpile of low-enriched uranium for further enrichment in Russia and France, where it would be converted into fuel rods. The rods, which Iran needs for the research reactor in Tehran, would be returned to the country about a year later... Exporting the uranium would temporarily leave Iran without enough of a stockpile to further enrich the uranium into material for a nuclear warhead, and the rods that are returned cannot be processed further for use in making weapons..."

"(Now) Iran (has) set a one-month deadline... for the West to accept its counterproposal... (which is) to have the West either sell nuclear fuel to Iran, or swap its nuclear fuel for Iran's enriched uranium in smaller batches instead of at once as the U.N. plan requires... (Iran)... warned that otherwise it will produce reactor fuel at a higher level of enrichment on its own..."

"(However) it would likely take years before it could master the technology to turn uranium enriched to the level of 20 percent into the fuel rods it needs for a medical research reactor..."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/02/iran-warns-west-it-will-m_n_409306.html