The US warned a defiant Iran yesterday that "all options are on the table" to thwart its nuclear ambitions and the EU's top diplomat prepared to travel to Tehran in the latest bid to resolve the dispute.
As part of carrot-and-stick diplomacy, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said he would be in Iran on June 14-15 to discuss an offer by major powers of trade and other benefits if it halts uranium enrichment.
But the Islamic Republic made clear it has no plans to bow to international demands and halt a nuclear programme which it says is aimed at generating electricity but which the West fears is a covert drive to build bombs.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Western pressure had failed to stop Iran's nuclear activities.
"With God's help today (the Iranian nation) have gained victory and the enemies cannot do a damned thing," he said in a speech broadcast live on state TV.
The UN Security Council has imposed three rounds of limited sanctions on Iran since 2006 over its refusal to suspend nuclear enrichment, which can provide fuel for power plants or material for weapons if refined much further.
This week US President George W. Bush said an "Iran with a nuclear weapon would be incredibly dangerous for world peace". On a farewell tour of Europe he threatened Tehran with more sanctions if it failed to stop enriching uranium.
Mr Bush, who met German Chancellor Angela Merkel north of Berlin as part of his week-long tour of Europe, is pressing allies to agree new punitive measures against Iran.
While Europeans have voiced support for such steps, they are also looking past Mr Bush, whose presidency ends in January.
"Both the chancellor and my first choice, of course, is to solve this diplomatically," Mr Bush told a joint news conference with Ms Merkel. But he added: "All options are on the table", a reference to the threat of military action.
Mr Ahmadinejad, speaking in a western province, said the Bush "era" had ended and promised that Iran's foes would not be able to "harm even a centimetre" of its territory.
Defence analysts say the US could unleash vastly superior firepower in any attack on Iran but that Tehran could hit back against US forces in Iraq and disrupt oil supplies crucial to the world economy.
In Brussels, Mr Solana said he hoped his trip to Tehran would start a new process for resolving the standoff diplomatically, even though he has played down any prospect of a breakthrough.
"We hope very much there will be a positive outcome of the visit and that it will not be just one visit, that it will be a process that restarts again in trying to find a diplomatic solution to the crisis," he told reporters.
The five permanent members of the UN Security Council - the US, Britain, France, Russia and China - and Germany agreed last month on an enhanced package of incentives to coax Iran into giving up nuclear enrichment.