Teheran  - Iran has started production of new home-built submarines, Defence Minister Mostafa Mohammad-Najar said Monday.

Najar told state television that the new submarine, called Ghaem, was capable of carrying and firing various torpedoes and subsurface missiles with a special operation crew onboard.

The minister said Iran has become self-sufficient in manufacturing all types of military vessels, adding however that the Islamic state would just use its military strength for safeguarding peace and security in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman.

Tehran  - Iran warned the United States over interfering in the Caucasus crisis, ISNA news agency reported Monday.

"Powers outside the (Caucasus) region should not seek excuses for tensions and instability in the crisis area," ISNA quoted Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki as saying.

"Their destiny in the Caucasus would definitely not be different than the dilemma they have in other regions where they have already created a crisis," Mottaki added, referring to the US presence in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Tehran - Tehran said the reaction by the United States to Iran's launching of a satellite carrier was not surprising, official news agency IRNA reported Wednesday.

An unnamed US official was quoted Tuesday by the foreign press as saying that Sunday's launch of an Iranian test satellite into space was a failure - contrary to Iranian claims.

"We are not surprised by the US reaction as our scientific achievements have always been denied by the Americans," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Ghashghavi said.

Tel Aviv - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is "the best present Israel has received" because of his anti-Israel statements, the former head of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency said Wednesday.

"He unites the world against Iran," Ephraim Halevy told the US-backed al-Hurra Arabic-language television station.

"Everything he says proves to that the Iran of today is an Iran you cannot live with," he said in the interview, which was broadcast Tuesday, but excerpts of which were quoted in the Israeli media Wednesday.

Tehran - Iran plans to build six more nuclear power plants, the deputy head of the Iranian Atomic Organization said Tuesday.

Ahmad Fayazbakhsh told the official news agency IRNA that contracts were signed with six local companies commissioned to find suitable locations for the new plants within the next 13 months.

Companies from Canada, Russia and Switzerland also took part in the tender but only local firms were finally selected, he said.

Istanbul - Turkey and Iran are to move forward with negotiations on a major agreement on the transport of natural gas, following Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's visit to Istanbul last week.

Turkey and Iran had signed a memorandum of understanding in 2007 that would see the transport of natural gas from Iran via Turkey to Europe. According to officials however, disputes over the terms and conditions of the deal had impeded progress thus far.

Ahmadinejad said in Istanbul on Friday that "I hope that we are very close ... Turkey is the key country for the transport of Iranian gas to Europe."