Iran 'could have atom bomb in a year'

President Ahmadinejad of Iran claimed on October 7, that his country had developed 3,000 centrifuges for enriching uranium - a sufficient number, according to scientists to allow it to build an atomic bomb within a year. In a defiant speech, Mr Ahmadinejad also vowed to continue ignoring UN Security Council resolutions to stop Iran's nuclear programme, claiming that "the Iranian nation could not care a less" about two rounds of sanctions that had been imposed. "We have now reached 3,000 machines," the Iranian leader told a rally in the north eastern city of Birjand. Enriched uranium can fuel power plants but also, if refined further, provide fissile material for bombs, although Iran says that its nuclear programme is for generating electricity. Western experts say that, in ideal conditions, Iran's 3,000 centrifuges could enrich enough uranium within a year to make a nuclear warhead. The centrifuges are located at an underground nuclear facility at Natanz in central Iran.