TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s nuclear chief  said U.N. criticism pushed his country to retaliate by announcing ambitious plans for more uranium enrichment. With tensions rising over deadlocked negotiations, France said diplomacy was not working and sanctions against Iran were needed.

Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi told state radio that Iran’s decision to build 10 new uranium enrichment facilities was necessary to respond to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s resolution Friday demanding that Iran halt all enrichment activities.

The bold announcement appears to be largely bluster: Any new plants would take years to build and stock with centrifuges, if Iran can even afford it or obtain the materials while under U.N. sanctions. But the ambitious plans demonstrate Tehran’s anger over the IAEA rebuke and its refusal to back down in the standoff despite sanctions threats.

In Paris, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner called Iran’s decision on the new nuclear sites “a bit childish.”

“Iran is playing an extremely dangerous game,” Kouchner said on France’s RTL radio today. “There’s no coherence in all this, other than a gut reaction.”

Iran and the top powers at the U.N. are deadlocked over a U.N.-drafted proposal for Iran to send much of its enriched uranium abroad, which the West seeks because it would at least temporary leave Tehran unable to develop a nuclear bomb. So far, Iran has balked at the offer. The unusually strong IAEA censure of Iran over enrichment was a sign of the West’s growing impatience with its defiance.