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TEHRAN — A top Iranian lawmaker said on Sunday that Tehran could stop refining uranium to 20 percent purity level, the most controversial part of its atomic programme, if it gets nuclear fuel required for a research reactor.

"If the fuel for the Tehran research reactor is given, Iran will not insist on continuing the production of the fuel domestically," state news agency IRNA quoted Alaeddin Borujerdi, head of parliament's commission on foreign policy, as saying.

Iran has infuriated world powers by refining since February uranium to 20 percent level which when converted into fuel plates or rods can be used to power nuclear reactors.

World powers want Iran to suspend the sensitive atomic work, accusing Tehran of secretly aiming to make nuclear weapons. The Islamic republic says its atomic programme is purely for peaceful purposes.

On June 23, Iran's atomic chief Ali Akbar Salehi said that Iran was "not in a hurry" to produce 20 percent enriched uranium even if it can process five kilograms every month.

"We will adjust the production in a way that the workshop for making the fuel plates is equipped," he said, referring to fuel made from the 20 percent enriched uranium and used to power the Tehran research reactor.