IRAN: US president George W Bush yesterday refused to rule out nuclear strikes against Iran if diplomacy fails to curb the Islamic Republic's atomic ambitions.
Iran, which says its nuclear programme is purely peaceful, told permanent members of the UN Security Council it would pursue atomic technology whatever they decided at a meeting in Moscow yesterday.
Iran's defiance of world pressure to halt the programme drove oil prices to a record high of $72.64 a barrel, raising fears of a cut in supplies from the world's fourth biggest crude exporter.
Mr Bush said in Washington he would discuss Iran's nuclear activities with China's President Hu Jintao this week and avoided ruling out nuclear retaliation if diplomatic efforts fail.
Asked if options included planning for a nuclear strike, Mr Bush replied: "All options are on the table. We want to solve this issue diplomatically and we're working hard to do so." Speculation about a US attack has mounted since a report in New Yorker magazine said this month that Washington was mulling over the option of using tactical nuclear weapons to knock out Iran's subterranean nuclear sites.
The US was expected to push for targeted sanctions against Tehran when it met the Security Council's other permanent members - Britain, France, China and Russia - plus Germany in Moscow. Russia and China oppose sanctions and the use of force.
Deputy foreign ministers from the six nations met ahead of an end of April deadline for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to report on whether Iran is complying with UN demands that it halt uranium enrichment.
"I recommend that they do not make hasty decisions, be prudent and study their path in the past. Any time they have pressured Iran they have got adverse results," Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said.
"Whatever the result of this meeting might be, Iran will not abandon its rights [ to nuclear technology]," he said later.
In Washington, US state department spokesman Sean McCormack said that preliminary discussions in Moscow indicated "that there is wide agreement on the fact that Iran can't be allowed to possess the means to develop a nuclear weapon".
But Mr McCormack made a point of stressing no major decisions would be taken in Moscow.
US under-secretary of state Nicholas Burns cancelled a news conference that had been scheduled to take place after the talks ended. No reason was given.
US senator Joe Lieberman, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told the Jerusalem Post the US probably could not destroy Iran's nuclear programme but could attempt to set it back by strikes as a last resort.
"I think the only justifiable use of military power would be an attempt to deter the development of their nuclear programme if we felt there was no other way to do it," he said.
Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, speaking at an annual military parade, said the army was ready to defend the nation. "It will cut off the hands of any aggressors and will make any aggressor regret it," Mr Ahmadinejad said.
IAEA inspectors are due in Iran on Friday to visit nuclear sites.