TEHRAN, Dec. 23 (Xinhuanet) -- A top Iranian cleric vowed here Friday that Iran would not give up its right to get access to peaceful nuclear technology, saying the nation prepares to defend the right "to the last drop of blood".

    Ahmad Khata mi, Tehran's substitute Friday Prayers Leader, made the remarks in a speech to thousands of worshipers, the official IRNA news agency reported.

    Khatami was quoted as saying that all parties and political wings in the country were unanimous over the government's efforts to defend Iran's nuclear rights.

    "Westerners should know that in the case of Iran's nuclear energy, they are not facing a party and wing, rather they are encountered by a nation which has risen up to defend its inalienable rights to the last drop of its blood," Khatami told the worshipers.

    Khatami's comments came two days after Iran and the European Union (EU), the longtime broker of the Iranian nuclear issue, agreed to hold further negotiations in January 2006 in a round of preparatory talks in Vienna, Austria.

    The bilateral nuclear negotiations were stranded since Iran defiantly resumed uranium conversion activities, a precursor to the enrichment, in early August.

    Tehran is endeavoring to secure its right to build nuclear fuel cycle, which necessitates uranium enrichment, a process also able to produce material used for atomic bombs.

    The EU insists that Iran must halt all work for nuclear fuel cycle construction, trying to press Iran on an alleged Russian proposal, which allows Iran to conduct uranium conversion activities in exchange for the country's transfer of enrichment process to Russia.

    It is a measure keeping Tehran from obtaining nuclear technology crucial to making atom bombs, which Iran has expressed its rejection to.

    The United States accuses Iran of developing nuclear weapons secretly, a charge rejected by Tehran as politically motivated. Enditem