The head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation announced on Tuesday that the Islamic regime had produced a new generation of centrifuges – a week before world powers begin a new round of talks on Tehran’s nuclear programme.

Ali-Akbar Salehi said cascades of 10 centrifuges that would increase the rate of uranium enrichment “are being tested”, without giving any timetable on when they would be installed at the underground nuclear facility in Natanz. He did not clarify how many were produced so far.