President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said today Iran will not suspend sensitive nuclear work as demanded by world powers and brushed aside the threats of more sanctions on his country.
World powers have offered a package of trade and other incentives if the Islamic Republic suspends uranium enrichment, a process the West believes Iran is seeking to master to build nuclear warheads. Tehran denies the charge.
"Whatever they do, Iran will continue its activities. Sanctions are not important," he told a news conference. "The era of such threats has ended."
Mr Ahmadinejad made clear Iran, the world's fourth-largest oil exporter, had no plans to back down in the dispute.
"The era of (uranium enrichment) suspension has ended ... Iran's position on the nuclear issue has not changed."
The United States, Britain and France this week vowed to seek harsher sanctions on Tehran over its defiance of UN demands for full disclosure and a halt to uranium enrichment, which can have both civilian and military purposes.
Their calls came after the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency said in a report on Monday that Iranian stonewalling had brought to a standstill its investigation into whether Iran had covertly researched ways to make an atom bomb.
Mr Ahmadinejad earlier today told Iran's state Press TV that the IAEA report had confirmed the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear programme and that Tehran had cooperated with the Vienna-based UN agency with "full transparency".
He also said the IAEA had no mandate to consider Western intelligence, which alleges that Iran had linked projects to process uranium, test high explosives and modify a missile cone in a way suitable for a nuclear warhead.
Iran has repeatedly denied the allegations but the IAEA says Tehran must substantiate its position by granting access to sites, documents and relevant officials for interviews.
The Islamic Republic says its nuclear work is for generating electricity and rejects Western accusations it is seeking to build weapons.
"The United States government has made a claim that is beyond and outside of the purview and the provisions of the IAEA and the IAEA does not have a mandate really to examine such claims," Ahmadinejad said.
Iran has withstood three rounds of limited UN sanctions imposed so far and may count on Russia, at odds with Western powers over Georgia, to hold up harsh action by the UN Security Council, analysts say.
"Those who say we want to put sanctions do so because of their weakness ... They are putting sanctions on themselves," Mr Ahmadinejad told the news conference.