Iran says UN referral will not end nuclear plans

Iran will not be deflected from its drive to deve-lop nuclear technology if it is referred to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said yesterday.

"If they want to destroy the Iranian nation's rights by that course, they will not succeed," Ahmadinejad told a news conference.

The United States and European Union powers have said they want Iran referred to the United Nations because it has failed to allay their suspicions that its nuclear programme is aimed at deve-loping weapons.

Iran raised the stakes in the dispute this week by removing UN seals to gain access to equipment that purifies uranium, which can be used for power or, if highly enriched, in bombs. Despite repeated questions, Ahmadinejad declined to clarify whether the atomic research work that Iran was resuming would involve small-scale production of enriched uranium, as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said.

The United States, Britain, Germany and France say talks with Iran are at a dead end, and that they will ask the board of the IAEA, the UN nuclear watchdog, to pass the case to the Security Council.

They said this week Iran had consistently breached its commitments and failed to show its nuclear activities were peaceful. Tehran denies it is seeking to develop nuclear weapons and says it needs nuclear technology only for electricity.