Tashkent, Feb. 11 -- Iran has started producing uranium metal, a material that could be used to make the core of an atomic weapon.

That's according to a report from the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency on Wednesday.

The U.N atomic watchdog confirmed about 3 grams of the uranium metal was produced at Iran's Fuel Plate Fabrication Plant in Esfahan.

Earlier this week, reports confirmed that the metal material was not enriched.

According to the IAEA report and another seen by Reuters, Tehran plans to enrich the uranium metal to 20 percent, short of the 90 percent considered weapons grade.

Last year, Iran passed a law calling for the opening of a uranium metal plant for nuclear weapon research in response to the killing of its to...