March 1 (Bloomberg) -- Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that he believes Iran has enough nuclear material to eventually make a bomb, concurring with a United Nations report.

“We think they do, quite frankly,” Mullen said on CNN’s “State of the Union” program today about the UN report. “Iran having a nuclear weapon, I’ve believed for a long time, is a very, very bad outcome for the region and for the world.”

The UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency said Feb. 19 that Iran’s stockpile of low-enriched uranium has increased about 60 percent since November to about 1,010 kilograms (2,227 pounds) of the material.

It would take 630 kilograms of low-enriched uranium to yield 15 to 22 kilograms of weapons-grade uranium, enough for the production of a nuclear weapon under the supervision of an expert bomb-maker, London’s Verification Research Training and Information Center estimates.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates, speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program today, said Iran isn’t yet “close to a stockpile. They’re not close to a weapon at this point. And so there is some time.”

Iran, with the world’s second-largest oil and natural gas reserves, is accused by the U.S. of having an illicit nuclear weapons program, funding Islamist terrorist groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas, and interfering in Iraq, something the Islamic Republic denies.

The dispute over Iran’s nuclear development concerns the enrichment of uranium in defiance of UN sanctions. Enriched uranium can be used to fuel a reactor and, at higher concentrations, can form the core of a bomb.

Iran’s nuclear program is monitored by the IAEA, which oversees adherence to the global nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, to which Iran is a signatory. IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei on Feb. 19 cited Iran’s “continued lack of cooperation” during nuclear inspections.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nadine Elsibai in Washington at nelsibai@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: March 1, 2009 11:22 EST