Iran has categorically rejected reports that the country is modifying long- and medium-ranged missiles to carry nuclear warheads.

Unnamed diplomats claimed on Saturday that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has shown its members documents indicating that Iran secretly 'tried to modify a missile cone to carry a nuclear bomb'.

Iran's envoy to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltaniyeh, said the purpose of such reports is to pressure Iran into disclosing sensitive information about its conventional military programs.

The documents and photos obtained by the UN nuclear body were supposedly discovered by the US intelligence services on a laptop.

"Who in the world could believe there are a series of top secret documents found on a laptop regarding a Manhattan Project-type nuclear (program) in Iran and none of these documents bore 'confidential' or 'top secret' seals?" Soltaniyeh said.

A senior Iranian commander, Brigadier General Hossein Salami, reacted on Sunday to the reports and said, "We regard nuclear weapons as useless and not in line with our national interests."

"Iran would never invest in matters that have no practical use and are against its defensive doctrine," added head of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) air forces, Brig. Gen. Salami.

Iran is developing a nuclear program to generate electricity for its national grid, which currently suffers shortages.

The situation has forced the government in Tehran to adopt a rationing program by scheduling power outages - of up to two hours a day - across both urban and rural areas in the country.

A source close to the Russian military said in early September that Moscow is considering providing Tehran with more nuclear assistance amid simmering tensions between Russia and the US.

Washington, Tel Aviv and their European allies, meanwhile, accuse Tehran, a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), of making efforts to make nuclear weapons. The US and Israel have also threatened Iran with war should the country continue with its nuclear program.

Russia believes US-Israeli threats against Iran could eventually compel the country to acquire a nuclear bomb in a bid to protect its sovereignty.

MD/HGH