VIENNA: Iran has informed the U.N. nuclear watchdog of plans to produce uranium metal enriched to up to 20% purity for reactor fuel, the agency said on Tuesday, in a move that is likely to anger Western powers in talks to revive the Iran nuclear deal.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it would be a multi-stage process, suggesting it will take time, but Western powers have already condemned Iran's production of a small quantity of uranium that was not enriched and its plans to produce enriched metal, which can be used to make a nuclear bomb.