Iranian president: Nuclear fuel facility legal

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President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says his country's newly disclosed nuclear fuel facility is completely legal and open for inspection by the IAEA.

He says Iran's disclosure of the site on Monday was earlier than required. He says the first stages of the plant's operation will not begin for 18 months. The Iranian president added that the United States, Britain and France will regret accusing Iran of trying to hide the site.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said, "I think they already probably regret it and will be regretting it more, because at the end of the day this is a very ordinary facility that's been set up and it's only in the early stages. We still have a month before the deadline to inform everyone. It's not a secret. If it was, why did we inform the IAEA a year ahead of time? We've done it transparently."

The Iranian leader accuses Western powers of seeking to stack the table against Iran before an Oct. 1 meeting to discuss the nuclear issue. While Ahmadinejad says he is hopeful about the meeting, he stressed Iran's position that it would not negotiate away its overall right to a nuclear program.