Iran not to halt atomic work

Iran said yesterday it would never suspend uranium enrichment as demanded by the West, a day after world powers agreed to work on a new UN resolution to pressure Tehran to back down over its nuclear programme.

Officials from the five permanent UN Security Council members - the United States, France, Russia, China and Britain - plus Germany, who met in London on Monday, also said they were committed to a negotiated resolution to the standoff.

The US, which says "all options" are on the table while insisting it wants a peaceful solution, has ratcheted up pressure by sending a second aircraft carrier to the Gulf.

Russia has voiced concern about growing talk of military strikes and China again called yesterday for a diplomatic solution. Both countries, which have veto powers in the Security Council, have been reluctant to penalise Iran in the past.

"Suspending uranium enrichment is an illegal and illegitimate demand... and it will never happen," Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki was quoted by the official IRNA news agency as saying.

The United Nations imposed limited sanctions on Iran's nuclear programme in December and Tehran faces possible further steps for ignoring a February 21 deadline to halt enrichment, which the West says Iran is using so it can make atomic bombs.