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TEHRAN, Iran - Iran told the U.N.Â’s nuclear watchdog agency Monday of its decision to resume some nuclear activities, the spokesman of IranÂ’s top security decision-making body said.

Iran has asked the International Atomic Energy Agency to instruct its inspectors in Iran to break the seals on central IranÂ’s Isfahan Nuclear Conversion Facility so technicians can restart uranium reprocessing, Ali Agha Mohammadi, spokesman for IranÂ’s Supreme National Security Council, told state-run radio.

Reprocessing uranium is a step below uranium enrichment, which is to remain suspended, said Mohammadi.

The work is to resume at the Isfahan plant, which converts uranium ore concentrate, known as yellowcake, into uranium gas, the feedstock for enrichment. Uranium enriched to high levels can be used for nuclear bombs; at low levels it is used as fuel for nuclear energy plants.

Britain, Germany and France have been leading U.S.-backed EU negotiations aimed at persuading Iran to permanently freeze parts of its contentious nuclear program, particularly uranium enrichment.

Iranian officials have signaled an intensifying impatience with the slow pace of negotiations with Europe, and an incoming conservative administration in Tehran has showed signs of wanting to harden the country's stance.

"We have no intention of cutting off dialogue with Europe. We are willing to continue dialogue with them after we resume part of our nuclear activities," Gholam Ali Hadad Adel, the speaker of parliament, said. "Iran will not give in to any further waste of time."

Tehran's decision to resume some nuclear activities could lead to the Europeans calling for Iran to be hauled before the U.N. Security Council, which the United States has called on to sanction Tehran over its nuclear program. Washington claims Iran wants to build nuclear bombs, but Tehran denies this and says its nuclear program is aimed at generating energy.

Earlier Monday, Hadad Adel had warned that a 5 p.m. (8:30 a.m. ET) deadline was the "final opportunity" for Europeans to submit a list of incentives aimed at persuading Iran to permanently freeze its uranium enrichment program.

German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer has called for restraint, telling ARD Television late Sunday that "it is in the interest of both sides, it is in the interest of international stability and peace that this does not escalate."

International pressure
Iran suspended enrichment of uranium last November under international pressure led by the United States. Iran maintains its program is peaceful and has long said its decision to suspend all uranium enrichment-related activities was voluntary and temporary.

France, Britain and Germany, acting on behalf of the 25-nation European Union, had been expected to present the proposals to Iran by the beginning of August, but they requested a delay until Aug. 7.

Iran refused to wait, and said it would write the U.N. nuclear agency about its plans.

President Mohammad Khatami, who will be replaced Aug. 6 by conservative president-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said last week that Iran would resume some suspended activities, with or without European consent.