In a meeting here Tuesday between the Director General of the Political Studies Department at Iran's Foreign Ministry, Mohammad Tabatabaei and a number of Chinese officials and researchers, Iran-China relations, Iran's nuclear issue and the problems facing the Middle East were discussed.

At the meeting, both sides expressed their views on the specified topics and exchanged ideas.

Tabatabaei briefed the participants on Iran's views about the questions raised by Chinese researchers concerning the country's nuclear issue, the reason behind Iran's decision to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, pursuance of the nuclear fuel cycle and Iran's diplomacy on nuclear technology.

Putting the current rate of oil production in Iran at 4.1 million barrels per day, he said that 40 percent of it is consumed domestically.

"It has been predicted that the figure will increase to 80 percent within the next five years. This is why Iran seeks to supply its required energy through other sources," he added.

The official put the cost of generation of each kilo-volt of electricity from oil and gas at 5.4 and 5.9 cents respectively, adding that the cost of the equivalent amount of nuclear electricity is 1.7 cents, which is six time cheaper than other types of energy.

He noted that today Iran owns rich uranium mines and has access to the technology required to produce nuclear energy.

Turning to the research conducted on one third of Iran's soil to discover uranium mines, he said that during the studies, 36,000 tons of uranium were discovered, which if used will generate electricity, equivalent to that generated by 45 billion barrels of oil.

He said, "Given the West is not prepared to supply the fuel required by automobiles, we have to produce it ourselves." He pointed to the fact that Iran's nuclear activities have fully been within the framework of NPT and under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and said that 2,000 inspections were conducted by the agency at Iran's nuclear installations.

"The IAEA inspectors continuously visit Iran. To prove its good will in the nuclear issue, Iran even implemented the Additional Protocol without having it approved by the Iranian Majlis. This is while, out of NPT's 129 member states, 117 countries do not comply with it," he added.

Tabatabaei said that the US opposition to Iran's nuclear activities is not associated with the human rights or terrorism issues, adding that it is rather rooted in Iran's challenge of the US unilateralism, similar to that of many other countries.