Special Report: Iran Nuclear Crisis

    TEHRAN, July 11 (Xinhua) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday that his country would not suspend its uranium enrichment, the official IRNA news agency reported.

    "No one should expect us to give up our rights and suspend the trend of activities," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying.

    His remark came as a team of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) officials arrived in Iran earlier in the day to draw up a framework to resolve the dispute over the country's nuclear program.

    Asked about recent remarks made by IAEA Director General Mohamed El Baradei that Iran has slowed down installation of centrifuges, Ahmadinejad said, "The installation process may be slow or high. This is an executive work."

    "We demand all our nation's rights and will not retreat from absolute rights one iota," he said. "All Iran's nuclear activities are carried out within the frameworks of the International Atomic Energy Agency regulations."

    "We advocate dialogue and are ready to remove the IAEA ambiguities over Iran's peaceful nuclear program during talks, "Ahmadinejad added.

    The IAEA team, led by its deputy head for safeguards Olli Heinonen, is expected to hold talks with Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani during its three-day stay in Iran.

    The talks would be within the frameworks of the Non-

    Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the IAEA safeguards, according to IRNA.

    The idea to draw up the framework was put forward by Larijani while he was in Madrid, Spain, last month for talks with the European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana about Iran's nuclear program.

    Later last month, in a meeting with El Baradei in Vienna, Larijani invited a delegation from the IAEA to visit Iran and hold talks with Iranian officials over drawing a plan of action to put an end to the stalemate between Iran and the UN nuclear watchdog.