President Bush said on Tuesday during a meeting with Italian President Giorgio Napolitano that Iran will have to give details about its secret nuclear weapons program suspected in a US intelligence report. Bush warned Tehran that continuing to enrich uranium would become increasingly dangerous for the Islamic republic.

"We believe Iran had a secret military weapons program. And Iran must explain to the world why they had a program," Bush said.

According to the report of the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) that was released on December 3, Iran had a nuclear weapons program that was brought to a standstill in the fall of 2003 and was hidden from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)

"Iran has an obligation to explain to the IAEA why they hid this program from them," the U.S. president added.

Although the NIE report was a heavy blow to Bush's allegations that Iran was actively seeking to develop nuclear weapons, the U.S. president said he will continue to press the Islamic country on that issue. Bush already announced that more international sanctions will be inflicted on Iran because it continues to enrich uranium in defiance of the UN Security Council.

On the other hand, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that his country plans to expand the scope of uranium enrichment, a process that according to his statements has the aim of reach a nuclear based energy industry.

However, according to the NIE, Iran could produce enough enriched uranium to build a bomb sometime in the next decade.

A conference call of the Security Council was held on Tuesday and top officials of the five permanent members (Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States) and Germany met for discussions on the nuclear issue. China and Russia had been unenthusiastic about supporting new resolution and their position will very likely harden because of the NIE report.