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VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran dismissed on Tuesday threats of force to make it back down over its nuclear program and said only negotiations -- without the precondition that it stop enriching uranium -- could resolve the dispute.
"Maybe there are certain groups or countries willing to coerce Iran ... Iran's nuclear dossier cannot be resolved through force and pressure," said Ali Larijani, Tehran's chief nuclear negotiator.
Larijani was in Vienna to meet the head of the U.N. watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mohamed ElBaradei, on the eve of a United Nations deadline for it to back down on a program the West suspects aims to develop nuclear weapons.
The U.N. Security Council will consider fresh sanctions on Iran if it fails to comply.
Iran says its program is purely peaceful. "We would give the necessary assurances and guarantees that there will be no deviation ever toward nuclear weapons," Larijani told reporters, without specifying what the guarantees would be.
"If the other side expresses concerns about possible deviations of Iran's activities in the future, we have no objections to settling these concerns at the negotiating table," he said after meeting ElBaradei.
ElBaradei is expected to report to the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday that Tehran has defied a 60-day deadline to suspend enrichment, as demanded in a December 23 resolution that also banned transfers of technology and know-how to Iran's atomic program.
Washington has not ruled out military action but says it is seeking a diplomatic solution and is not planning a war.
The United States has piled on pressure by sending a second aircraft carrier to the Gulf and slapping sanctions on some Iranian banks and companies.
The British Broadcasting Corporation quoted unnamed diplomatic sources as saying contingency planning for any U.S. attack went beyond targeting atomic sites to include most of Iran's military infrastructure.
In Iran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tehran wanted negotiations "under just conditions."
"If they say that we should close down our fuel production facilities to resume talks, we say fine, but those who enter talks with us should also close down their nuclear fuel production facilities," he told a rally, broadcast on state TV.
Washington brushed off that idea.
"Do you believe that's a serious offer?" said a White House spokesman.
U.S. WARSHIPS MOVE IN
The U.S. aircraft carrier John C. Stennis and warships in its group joined another U.S. carrier in the strategic Gulf waterway on Monday, the U.S. Navy said.
Rear Admiral Kevin Quinn, commander of the Stennis strike group, said in a statement his ships were "here to help foster stability and security in the region." Analysts regard the deployment as a warning to Iran to retreat from enrichment work.
The BBC said in its report of possible U.S. action: "It is understood that any such attack -- if ordered -- would target Iranian air bases, naval bases, missile facilities and command-and-control centers."
Nuclear targets would include the uranium enrichment facility of Natanz in central Iran where Tehran operates a few hundred centrifuges at a research level but plans to install thousands to achieve so-called "industrial-scale" enrichment.
ElBaradei said in a Financial Times interview that Iran would be able to install 3,000 centrifuges as the basis for industrial scale fuel production in six to 12 months.
Diplomats monitoring IAEA inspections have said Tehran has set up several cascades (interlinked networks) of 164 centrifuges each in the plant and is poised to activate them to feed in uranium for refinement into fuel at any time.
One diplomat said a nine-tonne container of uranium hexafluoride gas, the feedstock for nuclear fuel, had been lowered into the plant in recent days.
ElBaradei noted intelligence estimates that Iran remains four to eight years away from mastering the means to assemble an atom bomb, assuming it wanted one, and that meant ample time remained for talks. Sanctions alone would not work, he said.
Larijani previously said Iran might consider some kind of compromise deal, such as restrictions on the level to which Iran is allowed to enrich uranium. Diplomats say another proposal could let Iran run some centrifuges without injecting feedstock.
Diplomats say the West opposes such steps as Iran would be able to practice skills required to perfect the process.
"Maybe there are certain groups or countries willing to coerce Iran ... Iran's nuclear dossier cannot be resolved through force and pressure," said Ali Larijani, Tehran's chief nuclear negotiator.
Larijani was in Vienna to meet the head of the U.N. watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mohamed ElBaradei, on the eve of a United Nations deadline for it to back down on a program the West suspects aims to develop nuclear weapons.
The U.N. Security Council will consider fresh sanctions on Iran if it fails to comply.
Iran says its program is purely peaceful. "We would give the necessary assurances and guarantees that there will be no deviation ever toward nuclear weapons," Larijani told reporters, without specifying what the guarantees would be.
"If the other side expresses concerns about possible deviations of Iran's activities in the future, we have no objections to settling these concerns at the negotiating table," he said after meeting ElBaradei.
ElBaradei is expected to report to the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday that Tehran has defied a 60-day deadline to suspend enrichment, as demanded in a December 23 resolution that also banned transfers of technology and know-how to Iran's atomic program.
Washington has not ruled out military action but says it is seeking a diplomatic solution and is not planning a war.
The United States has piled on pressure by sending a second aircraft carrier to the Gulf and slapping sanctions on some Iranian banks and companies.
The British Broadcasting Corporation quoted unnamed diplomatic sources as saying contingency planning for any U.S. attack went beyond targeting atomic sites to include most of Iran's military infrastructure.
In Iran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tehran wanted negotiations "under just conditions."
"If they say that we should close down our fuel production facilities to resume talks, we say fine, but those who enter talks with us should also close down their nuclear fuel production facilities," he told a rally, broadcast on state TV.
Washington brushed off that idea.
"Do you believe that's a serious offer?" said a White House spokesman.
U.S. WARSHIPS MOVE IN
The U.S. aircraft carrier John C. Stennis and warships in its group joined another U.S. carrier in the strategic Gulf waterway on Monday, the U.S. Navy said.
Rear Admiral Kevin Quinn, commander of the Stennis strike group, said in a statement his ships were "here to help foster stability and security in the region." Analysts regard the deployment as a warning to Iran to retreat from enrichment work.
The BBC said in its report of possible U.S. action: "It is understood that any such attack -- if ordered -- would target Iranian air bases, naval bases, missile facilities and command-and-control centers."
Nuclear targets would include the uranium enrichment facility of Natanz in central Iran where Tehran operates a few hundred centrifuges at a research level but plans to install thousands to achieve so-called "industrial-scale" enrichment.
ElBaradei said in a Financial Times interview that Iran would be able to install 3,000 centrifuges as the basis for industrial scale fuel production in six to 12 months.
Diplomats monitoring IAEA inspections have said Tehran has set up several cascades (interlinked networks) of 164 centrifuges each in the plant and is poised to activate them to feed in uranium for refinement into fuel at any time.
One diplomat said a nine-tonne container of uranium hexafluoride gas, the feedstock for nuclear fuel, had been lowered into the plant in recent days.
ElBaradei noted intelligence estimates that Iran remains four to eight years away from mastering the means to assemble an atom bomb, assuming it wanted one, and that meant ample time remained for talks. Sanctions alone would not work, he said.
Larijani previously said Iran might consider some kind of compromise deal, such as restrictions on the level to which Iran is allowed to enrich uranium. Diplomats say another proposal could let Iran run some centrifuges without injecting feedstock.
Diplomats say the West opposes such steps as Iran would be able to practice skills required to perfect the process.
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