Iran rejects Western "bullying" in nuclear dispute

TEHRAN, Mar 10 (Reuters) Iran vowed not to compromise in its nuclear dispute with the West, and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tehran would not be bullied.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Iran was probably the number one challenge for Washington and would be a major threat to US Middle East interests if it acquired atomic bombs. Iran says its nuclear programme is only for civilian use.

Russia, anxious to avert any move to impose UN sanctions on Iran, urged Tehran to cooperate with UN nuclear inspectors.

Speaking a day after it became clear the UN Security Council would take up the Iran standoff, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei -- ultimate decision-maker in the Islamic Republic -- urged officials not to give in to Western pressure.

''If the Iranian nation and government step back on nuclear energy today, the story will not end there and the Americans will make another pretext,'' Khamenei told senior clerics yesterday.

But he also called for ''wisdom and expediency'' in handling the issue, a possible nod to faint internal criticism in Iran that Ahmadinejad and other senior officials have antagonised the West with needlessly inflammatory statements.

''This nation ... will not allow others to treat it with a bullying attitude, even if (they) are international bullies,'' Ahmadinejad said in a speech in western Iran on Thursday.

''They know they are not capable of inflicting the slightest blow on the Iranian nation because they need the Iranian nation.

They will suffer more and they are vulnerable,'' he said.

RICE WARNS Rice said Tehran's vision of the Middle East was totally opposed to Washington's, reiterating concerns that Iran was backing anti-Israel militants and meddling in neighbouring Iraq.

She told a congressional hearing in Washington that the threat from Iran could grow exponentially.

''If you can take that and multiply it by several hundred, you can imagine Iran with a nuclear weapon and the threat they would then pose to that region,'' said Rice.

''We may face no greater challenge from a single country.'' Officials from the UN Security Council's five permanent members -- the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia -- met on Wednesday to discuss strategy when the council takes up a UN dossier on Iran early next week.

Most diplomats expect the 15-nation council, which can impose sanctions, to issue a statement first urging Iran to comply with resolutions by the International Atomic Energy Agency's board that it halt all uranium enrichment activities.

The UN nuclear watchdog's board this week forwarded a report on Iran to the council for possible action.

''We call on Iran to examine the results of the (IAEA) board meeting in the most serious way possible and ensure full cooperation with the IAEA,'' Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement posted on its Web site.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair told reporters on a trip to Slovakia: ''One thing is very clear. Iran must understand that the international community is of one view that it must not breach its atomic energy obligations.'' A leading Iranian security official warned on Wednesday Iran could inflict ''harm and pain'' to match whatever punishment Washington persuaded the Security Council to mete out to Iran.

A senior British official described this as a veiled threat of violence. ''It's a rhetorical threat at this stage but because Iran has a record of using violence in support of its foreign policy objectives we have to take it seriously,'' he said.

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