UN inspectors and intelligence specialists in western countries believe Iran may be preparing to build at least two additional secret nuclear sites despite demands that it open up its nuclear program, The New York Times reported late Saturday.

The newspaper said the suspicions were prompted by recent comments by a top Iranian official.

In an interview with the Iranian Student News Agency, Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, said President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had ordered work to begin soon on two new plants.

The plants, he said, "will be built inside mountains," presumably to protect them from attacks, according to The Times report.

"God willing," Salehi was quoted as saying, "we may start the construction of two new enrichment sites" in the Iranian new year, which began March 21.

Last September, US President Barack Obama revealed the evidence of a hidden Iranian nuclear site at Qum.

US officials say they share the International Atomic Energy Agency's suspicions and are examining satellite evidence about a number of suspected sites in Iran, The Times said.

But they have found no solid indications yet that Iran plans to use the new sites to produce nuclear fuel, the report said. Also, US officials are not certain about the number of sites Iran may be planning.

But even if the sites are built, US officials believe they would pose no immediate threat or change US estimates that it will still take Iran one to four years to obtain the capability to build a nuclear weapon, the paper said.

They think it would probably take several years for Iran to enrich uranium at any of the new sites, The Times noted.

earlier related report
Russia's Medvedev sees possible need for Iran sanctions
Moscow (AFP) March 27, 2010 - New sanctions against Iran may be needed to slow its nuclear drive, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Saturday, in the latest sign that Moscow may back a US call for further UN sanctions.

"We are convinced that the path of sanctions is not optimal," Medvedev said in a message of greetings to the Arab League summit in Libya, according to a statement released by the Kremlin.

"At the same time, the possibility that events may develop along these lines cannot be excluded. It should also be clearly said that the sanctions must be carefully adjusted and not aimed at Iran's civilian population."

The comments came one day after Russia and the United States announced they had reached a deal on a long-awaited nuclear disarmament treaty, fulfilling a key foreign-policy goal of US President Barack Obama.

Obama has sought Russian support for a new round of UN sanctions in order to rein in Iran's nuclear programme, which Washington and its allies fear is aimed at building an atomic bomb.

As a permanent, veto-holding member of the UN Security Council, Russia would need to give its support in order for such sanctions to be imposed.

Over the past six months, Moscow has shown signs of growing irritation with Iran and repeatedly hinted that it could back sanctions, after years in which Russia enjoyed friendly relations with the Islamic Republic.

Iran denies seeking to acquire atomic weapons and insists that its nuclear programme is peaceful in nature, but it has raised worries by stepping up uranium enrichment and rejecting a UN-brokered deal to end the standoff.