TEHRAN -- Iran plans to begin construction of a new uranium enrichment facility by late March 2011, Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Director Ali Akbar Salehi said on Wednesday.

“This year (1389), after the preliminary stages are conducted, (we) will begin the construction of one of these plants,” Salehi told reporters when asked if any decisions have been made about the locations of the planned plants.
Iranian calendar year 1389 began on March 21, 2010 and ends on March 20, 2011.
In 2009, the Iranian government approved plans to build 10 new uranium enrichment plants.
The new enrichment plants would be the same size as Iran’s main enrichment complex at Natanz, Isfahan Province.
Salehi also said that the Bushehr nuclear power plant is going through its final tests and will come on stream this summer.
Elsewhere in his remarks, he said there are some wise members of the 5+1 group (the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China, and Germany) that will prevent the group from pushing for the imposition of new UN sanctions on Iran.
Calling for sanctions to be imposed on Iran will only discredit the Western countries that take that course, he noted.
Asked if the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Saeed Jalili, would be having a meeting with European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, Salehi said both sides have expressed their interest in holding talks and they will probably meet in Turkey.
However, he gave no date for the meeting