Iran's new achievement in producing nuclear fuel at industrial scale is an advantage for the next round of talks.

Deputy head of Iran Atomic Energy Organization (IAEO) for International Affairs Mohammad Saeedi said that so far Iran assumed better status in the talks on nuclear program when it successfully carried out experimental stage of uranium enrichment and the latest breakthrough Iran made in production of fuel at industrial scale will give Iran upper hand in the next round of talks with the Western states.

Saeedi also noted that Iran conducted different stages of uranium enrichment under supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) before March 2006.

After IAEO checked capability the centrifuges to enrich uranium, it has created a chain of centrifuges for the purpose, he said.

"Iran has started works on a cascade of 164 centrifuges on February 24, 2006, and successfully produced the first batch of enriched uranium on March 2006," he added.

Saeedi noted that in the industrial phase, we should work on several cascades of centrifuges, thus, we could not conduct experiments last year, however, we needed one year for mechanical examinations, and then we were able to go to industrial scale uranium enrichment.

Touching on the long-term period of the process as logical, he said that Iranian experts do not have any link with foreign specialists in this respect.

The official added that the works have been expedited in the second six months of 1385 (March 21, 2006-March 20, 2007) to solve equations aiming to reach the industrial stage.