Iran president rejects UN call to halt enrichment

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran will pursue uranium enrichment in defiance of outside pressure, its president said on Thursday, a day before a U.N. nuclear watchdog delivers a verdict on whether Tehran has met U.N. Security Council demands.

"If you think by frowning at us, by issuing resolutions ... you can impose anything on the Iranian nation or force it to abandon its obvious right, you still don't know its power," Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a rally in northwest Iran.

"We have obtained the technology for producing nuclear fuel ... No one can take it away from our nation," he added.

Mohamed ElBaradei, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, is widely expected to tell the council and the agency's board on Friday that Iran has not stopped purifying uranium or fully answered IAEA queries as the U.N. body asked a month ago.

The West accuses Iran of seeking nuclear weapons under cover of a civilian program. Tehran, which denies the charge, said this month it had processed uranium to the level used in power stations for the first time and planned large-scale enrichment.

The United States, backed by Britain and France, favors limited sanctions if Iran refuses to halt enrichment very soon. Russia and China, the U.N. Security Council's other two veto-holding permanent members, have so far opposed any embargo.

Rather than pushing for sanctions immediately, the Western powers may put forward a resolution to make U.N. demands set out in a March 29 council statement legally binding.

They would propose punitive measures if Iran did not comply reasonably promptly, said a council diplomat in New York.

Russia and China said on Thursday diplomacy was the best way to tackle the dispute over Iran's nuclear ambitions.

"A diplomatic option suggests different ways to react. We will discuss this issue with our European partners, the United States and the international community," President Vladimir Putin said, stressing that any response should be coordinated.

"We oppose the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction including by Iran. But we believe Iran should have an opportunity to develop peaceful nuclear energy projects," he said after meeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Siberia.

Putin did not explicitly rule out sanctions. Some of his ministers have previously said only proof that Iran has a secret nuclear military program would justify such measures.

China gave no sign it was ready to line up behind Western powers seeking sanctions against the Islamic Republic, but analysts said it was unlikely to block their way.

Again advocating negotiations, the Foreign Ministry in Beijing called for calm, restraint and patience.

"A diplomatic solution is the correct choice and is in the interests of all parties," spokesman Qin Gang said. "China urges all parties to avoid measures that could worsen the situation."

SECURITY COUNCIL ROLE

China wants the IAEA board to consider ElBaradei's report before the Security Council takes up the issue, but several analysts said Beijing would be reluctant to scuttle a council resolution on Iran and risk a rift with Washington and Brussels.

Russia also believes the IAEA board is the best forum to debate Iran, but Merkel disagreed with Putin on this.

"It is a discussion in the IAEA, but also in the Security Council," she said in the Siberian city of Tomsk.

Merkel said diplomats from the council's five permanent members plus Germany would discuss Iran in early May. Foreign ministers of those countries were also likely to meet, she said.

NATO foreign ministers meeting on Thursday were expected to assess the scope for tougher action on Iran, diplomats said.

"It is an opportunity to confer," said a senior alliance diplomat of the two-day meeting in the Bulgarian capital Sofia where U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is due to meet counterparts from European powers and Russia.

While the United States is keeping military options open in case diplomacy fails, NATO commanders stress they have not been charged at any level to study plans for the use of force.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday Iran would strike at U.S. interests worldwide if it is attacked.

Azeri President Ilham Aliyev, due to meet President Bush on Friday, ruled out any role for his ex-Soviet state in any potential military attack on neighboring Iran.