Iran says Stuxnet damaged its nuclear program

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad admitted Monday that attacks by the Stuxnet computer virus have set back the regime's nuclear ambitions.

Ahmadinejad confirmed a computer virus had affected a number of centrifuges used to enrich uranium, though he didn't specify what software had caused the problems. He placed the blame on Iran's enemies in the West and vowed to continue with the country's nuclear program.

“Problems were created for a limited number of centrifuges due to the software installed in some of the electronic equipment,” Ahmadinejad said in a press conference aired on state television. “Our experts discovered them and today they are no longer able to do such a thing.”

The Stuxnet worm was first identified in June and is designed to target Siemens systems used by factories in Germany and Iran, among others. Because of its sophistication, some security experts have speculated it was designed by a government, possibly to target Iran's nuclear program.