Iran to tell U.N.: Enrichment to start Tuesday

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has ordered enrichment to be boosted 20 percent

Iran will inform the U.N. nuclear watchdog that it will begin enriching uranium to 20 percent on Tuesday, the country's atomic chief said.

"We have written a letter to the International Atomic Energy Agency to announce our intention to enrich uranium to 20 percent," Ali Akbar Salehi, director of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, told the Arabic-language Al-Alam television network Sunday night, Iranian media reported.

"We will send this letter to the world's atomic watchdog on Monday and then start enrichment on Tuesday in the presence of inspectors and observers from the IAEA."

Separately, Salehi said Iran has a final test to run before launching its first nuclear power plant in the southern city of Bushehr, the semi-official Fars News Agency reported Monday. A Russian contractor is involved in the construction of the facility.

"There remains just one test named 'Warm Water Test' before we can launch the power plant," he told Fars.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ordered Salehi on Sunday to boost enrichment to 20 percent, in the latest challenge to Western powers trying to rein in Tehran's nuclear program.