Iran will not be deflected from its right to develop nuclear technology by referral to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad insisted today.
"If they want to destroy the Iranian nation's rights by that course, they will not succeed," Mr Ahmadinejad told a news conference when asked about European moves to refer Tehran to the world body over a suspected atomic weapons programme.
Iran raised the stakes in the dispute this week by removing UN seals on equipment that purifies uranium, which can be used for power or, if highly enriched, in bombs.
The United States and the European Union's three biggest powers have said talks with Iran on the issue are at a dead end, and that they will ask the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency to refer the case to the Security Council.
Britain, Germany and France said this week that Iran had consistently breached its commitments and failed to show the world its nuclear activities were peaceful.
Tehran denies suggestions that it is seeking to develop nuclear weapons, and says it needs nuclear technology only to generate electricity.
Last night, US President George W Bush said the West should persist with referring Iran to the UN.
"What we're doing now is beginning to lay out the strategy of what happens in the Security Council," Mr Bush told a news conference in Washington after discussing the crisis during talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. "That's what friends do: We consult; we talk; we strategize as to how to achieve an important objective, which is not allowing - for Iran not to have a nuclear weapon," he said.
Mr Bush noted that the United States and other nations had "made it abundantly clear" to Tehran that developing nuclear capabilities or weapons was not acceptable. "... Iran armed with a nuclear weapon represents a grave threat to the security of the world," he said, noting that Mr Ahmadinejad recently said the destruction of Israel is an important part of his agenda.
US intelligence in 2005 said Iran could produce a weapon in about a decade, although most estimates predict it could do so far sooner with bomb-grade fuel from a foreign supplier.
Iran has repeatedly threatened to end snap checks and resume uranium enrichment if taken to the Council. Iran's cooperation with UN snap inspections is voluntary, but halting them would reduce its cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog to the legal minimum.
Iran's new representative to the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, Aliasghar Soltaniyeh, said Tehran remained "fully committed" to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and its statutory obligations to the IAEA.
Agencies