Ahmadinejad says UN referral will not end nuclear plans

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran will not be deflected from its drive to develop nuclear technology if it is referred to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Saturday.

"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 program is aimed at developing weapons.

Iran raised the stakes in the dispute this week by removing U.N. 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 U.N. 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.

OPEN TO NEGOTIATIONS

Iran's Foreign Ministry released a statement on Saturday evening saying it was still open to negotiations with London, Paris and Berlin but repeated its threat to resume making atomic fuel if the case went beyond the IAEA.

"A wide range of activities are voluntarily suspended in accordance with the Non-Proliferation Treaty," the statement read, referring principally to the enrichment of uranium.

"Any illogical attempt to derail the process of solving the issue outside the technical and logical IAEA path will thoroughly change that," said the statement which was carried by the official IRNA news agency.

Ahmadinejad was asked at the news conference whether Iran would play the "oil weapon" and hold back the world's second biggest reserves of crude from hungry energy markets to retaliate against international pressure.

"We have the necessary tools to defend our rights," he said. "Those who use harsh language against Iran need Iran 10 times more than we need them."

The Western powers have so far avoided saying they will ask the U.N. Security Council to put further pressure on Iran by imposing sanctions.

Agreement from Russia and China, which both have veto powers, is far from certain, and few countries would wish to risk any disruption of Iran's energy exports at a time of robust demand and high prices.

German Deputy Foreign Minister Gernot Erler, whose country is the biggest exporter to Iran, struck a fresh note of caution.

He told German radio, according to an advance summary, that economic sanctions were a "very dangerous path" that would hurt both sides. He said he believed travel restrictions on Iranian politicians would be a more effective way of exerting pressure.