Iran wants to stay in nuclear NPT: Ahmadinejad

Madrid, Apr 23: Iran would prefer to remain within the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and resist UN sanctions peacefully, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told Spanish television today. ''We don't like to go out of (the framework of) law but we should defend the rights of our nation,'' Ahmadinejad said in Farsi after being asked by TVE whether Iran could abandon the treaty.

In the live interview from Tehran, Ahmadinejad also indicated that Iran would prefer peaceful resistance to UN Security Council sanctions aimed at its nuclear programme.

''We are obliged to defend ourselves. A nation has this logical and legitimate right, on the basis of dialogue and peaceful defence,'' he said, in comments translated into Spanish by an interpreter.

''There are some countries which want a monopoly of production of nuclear fuel, and I think that's the root of all the problems,'' he said.

Iran's top negotiator Ali Larijani and European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana will meet in Turkey on Wednesday for talks on Iran's disputed nuclear development programme. It will be the first time they have met since more UN sanctions were imposed on Iran last month.

Ahmadinejad said Europe should adopt a separate stance to the United States in the talks.

''If the European Union wants to translate the words of the United States, we can go diectly to the United States,'' he said.

REUTERS

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