Iran was set to ignore the latest UN deadline as President Ahmadinejad pledged that the contentious atomic drive was vital for the nation's future.
TEHRAN: Iran was set on Wednesday to ignore the latest UN deadline to suspend nuclear work as a defiant President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad pledged that the contentious atomic drive was vital for the nation's future.
Iran's continued defiance came the day after talks between the head of the UN nuclear watchdog and the top Iranian nuclear negotiator ended without any breakthrough in the long-running standoff.
"Achievement of nuclear energy is very important for the progress and development of our country," Ahmadinejad told a public rally in the town of Siahkal in the nothern Gilan province, the ISNA agency reported.
"It is worth it, even if we shut down other activities for 10 years and focus on this issue," said Ahmadinejad, without specifying which areas could be affected.
His remarks echo a recent intervention by Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who slammed domestic critics of the nuclear programme and said atomic energy was Iran's 'future and destiny'.
The deadline was set by the UN Security Council on December 23 when it imposed its first ever sanctions against Tehran for failing to suspend uranium enrichment, a process the West fears could be used to make nuclear weapons.
The council gave the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency 60 days to report on whether Iran has imposed a 'full and sustained suspension' of its uranium enrichment activities.
IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei is due to report to the council by Friday on Iran's compliance and is widely expected to confirm Iran is pushing ahead with its uranium enrichment activities.
It is not clear what further penalties Iran could face for failing to obey the deadline, although the United States has threatened to crank up the hitherto relatively limited sanctions measures.
"Short of a major change of heart, I would report that Iran has not complied with the demand of the international community to suspend," ElBaradei told the Financial Times earlier this week.
No such about-turn was apparent when Larijani met ElBaradei in Vienna on Tuesday for their first talks this year.
"The important issue is not suspension (of enrichment)," Larijani told reporters after the meeting. "No discussions or agreements have been made over suspension of nuclear activities during these talks," Iran's envoy to the IAEA Ali Asghar Soltanieh told the Fars news agency in Vienna.
Iran is believed to be pressing on with work to install 3,000 uranium-enriching centrifuges at an underground installation in the central city of Natanz, a step that would bring it closer to industrial-scale enrichment.
The United States accuses Iran of seeking a nuclear weapon, a charge denied by Tehran which insists its atomic programme is peaceful in nature.
Although Washington has said it wants the standoff resolved through diplomacy, it has never ruled out military action to thwart Iran's atomic drive and now has two nuclear-powered aircraft carriers in the Gulf region.
The Pentagon nonetheless described as 'ludicrous' a BBC report that the US military has drawn up detailed contingency plans for air strikes against Iran's nuclear sites and wider military infrastructure.
The speculation came as Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards held the third day of war games aimed at readying its defensive capabilities, which have included repelling a hypothetical air strike against the Islamic republic.
"Anyone interested in non-conventional or illogical moves, it would definitely receive an appropriate response," Larijani said.
"If they are willing to move towards a boxing ring, then they would have problems on their side too," Larijani said.
Mohammad Zehedi, the Guards' ground forces commander, told state television that '95 per cent' of the objectives in this manoeuvre has already been reached.
A second US aircraft carrier, USS John C Stennis, and its accompanying strike group on Tuesday joined the USS Dwight D Eisenhower regional waters, in a move widely interpreted as a warning to to Tehran.
"What concerns me is miscalculation. That's certainly what we are trying to avoid... a mistake that then boils over into a war," said Vice Admiral Patrick M Walsh, the outgoing commander of the US Navy's Fifth Fleet.
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