Special report: Iran Nuclear Crisis   

    TEHRAN, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad pledged on Saturday that his country would "firmly" defend the goals of its nuclear program in all talks on the issue.

    Ahmadinejad made the pledge in a speech in the northwestern town of Maku. His speech came just two days after Iran failed to meet a UN deadline for suspending its enrichment of uranium, paving the way to possible sanctions against it, which the West fears is seeking to develop atomic weapons.

    The president said that "the people will not give in by one iota in their desire to use nuclear energy for peaceful ends and officials have the duty to defend these objectives with firmness during negotiations."

    "The Iranian people will defend their absolute right to use civilian nuclear energy in its entirety and will not step back," he added.

    On Friday, one day after Tehran disregarded a UN Security Council deadline for it to suspend uranium enrichment, the Iranian president also vowed that his country would never give up its right of exploiting peaceful nuclear energy.

    "Exploitation of peaceful nuclear energy is our undeniable right," Ahmadinejad told a rally, adding that "the Iranian people will never give up their legal right."

    It has been reported that EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani will hold a meeting in Europe next week.

    Solana disclosed Saturday that during his talks with EU foreign ministers in Finland that the European Union was giving Iran a "short" time but no deadline to move into talks on suspending uranium enrichment activities.

    Meanwhile, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's representative to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), warned Saturday that Iran would revise its policy of cooperating with the IAEA if sanctions are imposed over its nuclear program.

    "If other erroneous measures are committed and the UN Security Council decides on sanctions or punitive measures, there is no doubt that the Islamic Republic of Iran will revise its policy of cooperation and its engagements laid out in the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)," he noted.

    The UN Security Council adopted a resolution in late July urging Tehran to suspend by Aug. 31 all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities, including research and development, or face prospect of sanctions.

    On Thursday, the IAEA chief Mohammed ElBaradei presented a report to the Security Council, saying "Iran has continued enriching uranium despite a UN nuclear deadline for it to suspend or face possible sanctions."

    Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi said Friday that the IAEA's report was another indication of the Tehran's broad cooperation with the agency and showed the urgency to return to talks.

    But U.S. President George W. Bush declared Thursday that "there must be consequences" for Iran for refusing to stop enriching uranium, while John Bolton, Washington's ambassador to the UN, chose to be more specific, saying the Security Council must now draw up sanctions against Iran. Enditem