The president of Iran has said Tehran was willing to work with nations seeking to prevent it from developing nuclear weapons but said US and EU pressure would not force it to abandon its nuclear fuel program.
"We are not going to give up our rights," Mohammad Khatami told reporters in Caracas. "But at the same time we are willing to work with the world to give more security that Iran is not moving toward construction of nuclear weapons."
The United States joined the European Union on Friday in offering economic incentives to Iran to pressure the Islamic republic to give up sensitive activities such as uranium enrichment, which could be used to make bomb-grade fuel. Oil-rich Iran has frozen enrichment while it tries to reach a negotiated settlement about its nuclear program with Britain, Germany and France.
The Europeans have threatened to take Iran to the UN Security Council if it resumed uranium enrichment and nuclear reprocessing. Mr Khatami urged Europe to move forward quickly to achieve a settlement. "These talks cannot be so prolonged, and we are seeing some delays in the work of the Europeans and that is not allowing talks to reach a concrete and adequate result," he said.
Tehran says its atomic program will be used only to generate electricity, but the United States and the European Union suspect it could be diverted to weapons production.
Washington said on Friday it would allow Iran to begin talks on joining the World Trade Organization and consider letting it buy civilian aircraft parts if it stopped such activities.
The Iranian president was on a visit to Caracas to sign a raft of economic and energy deals with Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, a fellow OPEC member and a fierce critic of Washington's foreign policy.