国际英语新闻：Iran to manufacture domestic centrifuges: official

TEHRAN, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- Deputy Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council said Friday that Iran will manufacture Iranian brand centrifuges, the local satellite Press TV reported.

Iran's move is aimed at demonstrating the country's scientific progress despite sanctions, Ali Baqeri was quoted as saying. " Despite all restrictions and enemy threats, Iran's progress has been considerable," he said.

"Today, the Islamic Republic is after producing centrifuges with Iranian brand names and one can even say that nuclear technology is a completely indigenous science in the country," he said, addressing a gathering in the central city of Qom.

Meanwhile, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported on Friday that Iran will unveil two new nuclear achievements in its Arak Heavy Water establishments in central Iran on Saturday.

According to the report, a tour of the invited foreign officials and diplomats to Iranian nuclear sites will start on Saturday and the caretaker of the Iranian Foreign Ministry Ali Akbar Salehi will accompany the guests.

On Jan. 4, the media reported that Iran had invited ambassadors of Russia, China, the European Union (EU) and its allies among the Arab and the developing world to visit its nuclear sites, as a sign of goodwill, ahead of the Istanbul meeting slated for late January on Iran's nuclear issue.

The EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton, however, turned down Tehran's invitation, saying that it was the International Atomic Energy Agency's function to inspect the Iranian nuclear facilities.