South Africa will not support proposed new nuclear rules precluding it from pursuing uranium enrichment, a high-ranking foreign affairs official said on Wednesday.

Abdul Minty, the foreign affairs deputy director-general, made the statement at a briefing in a parliamentary committee on the situation in Iran. It's been proposed that Iran can only use nuclear fuel enriched on Russian soil.

Minty said that concerns about Iran should not lead to similar restrictions for other developing countries.

He said that South Africa is planning a pebble bed nuclear reactor which means that the country may be interested in enriching uranium.

U.S. President George W. Bush has proposed that countries not involved in enrichment be precluded from doing so.

Minty, also South Africa's representative on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) warned that any military attack on Iran over the nuclear weapons dispute could lead to greater instability in the Middle East.

He said developments in the region are not conducive to peace, however, many commentators believe that such an invasion is improbable.

Source: Xinhua