Six world powers are to meet in Paris today to try to break the deadlock over UN sanctions on Iran's nuclear programme amid warnings from Tehran.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a rally that his country was in the final stages of its nuclear programme and suggested it would reconsider its dealings with three European states if they tried to block Iran achieving its atomic rights.
"If you insist on your path against the Iranian nation's right, the Iranian nation will count it as enmity against the Iranian nation, and the Iranian nation will reconsider its relation to you," he said in an apparent reference to France, Britain and Germany -which are party to the Paris negotiations.
The West suspects Iran is using its civilian nuclear programme as cover to build an atomic bomb, but Tehran says its work is peaceful.
Senior diplomats from UN Security Council permanent members Russia, China, France, Britain and the United States, plus Germany, are due in Paris later for a new round of talks on Iran.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana will also attend.
Russia has refused to agree to tough sanctions to punish Tehran's refusal to meet an August 31st UN deadline to abandon uranium enrichment, which can produce fuel for nuclear power plants or atom bombs.
Russia opposes an assets freeze and a travel ban on individual and groups involved in Iran's nuclear programme, putting it at loggerheads with the Europeans and an increasingly impatient United States.