Iran boasts of victory over US on nuclear case

Iran boasted yesterday it had defeated US efforts to send its nuclear case to the UN Security Council while warning that its uranium enrichment freeze would only last for a few months.

"The Americans have been calling for Iran to be reported to the Security Council for a year and a half, now the whole world has turned down America's calls," Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Hassan Rohani told a news conference.

"Despite the US propaganda Iran has not relinquished its right to the (nuclear) fuel cycle and it never will do," said the cleric, who is secretary-general of Iran's top security body, the Supreme National Security Council.

His comments appeared to undermine European Union efforts to persuade Tehran to permanently mothball enrichment facilities - which can be used to make atomic reactor fuel or nuclear bombs - and were likely to fuel US concerns that Iran secretly plans to produce nuclear weapons.

Iran, which insists its nuclear programme is solely for electricity generation, on Monday escaped possible UN sanctions after agreeing to suspend all uranium processing and enrichment activities.

The EU hopes Iran will make the suspension permanent in return for trade deals and other incentives. But Tehran says the suspension is a voluntary and temporary measure designed to gain international trust.

US President George W. Bush yesterday welcomed Iran's decision to freeze sensitive nuclear activities but said that was not the final step and the Islamic republic needed to go further to show its commitment to abandoning nuclear weapons ambitions.

"The Iranians agreed to suspend but not terminate their nuclear weapons programme. Our position is that they ought to terminate their nuclear weapons programme," Mr Bush said.

In his first public comments on Iran since the UN nuclear watchdog agency on Monday passed a resolution approving Iran's week-old suspension of sensitive nuclear activities, Mr Bush said Iran had "obviously got more work to do".