Ahmadinejad says Iran will not halt nuclear work

TEHRAN, May 3 (Reuters) Iran will not bow to international pressure to halt its nuclear programme, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said today, after world powers told Tehran to freeze uranium enrichment or face further UN sanctions.

''If they (the West) think by using some organisations (UN) they can prevent Iran from obtaining (nuclear) technology ... they are mistaken,'' Ahmadinejad told a rally in the southeast Kerman province, state television reported.

Senior officials from the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China warned Iran yesterday of fresh UN sanctions if it refused to halt uranium enrichment work which the West suspects could be used to build nuclear weapons.

The United Nations has imposed two sets of sanctions on Iran since December over its refusal to halt enriching uranium.

Iran, the world's fourth largest oil exporter, has so far rejected freezing the sensitive work and says it needs its nuclear programme for generating electricity.

''The Iranian nation will continue to insist on its right to nuclear technology,'' Ahmadinejad said.

He was speaking on the day Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki was attending a regional conference on Iraq in Egypt.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Mottaki exchanged pleasantries over lunch at the conference, but did not discuss details of policy.

''They said hello. It was not about substance,'' said US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.

Analysts say the Iranian economy, already struggling to create enough jobs despite surging oil revenues, would be vulnerable particularly to restrictions on gasoline imports, European financing and trade in industrial components.

The head of the International Energy Agency (IEA), adviser to 26 industrialised countries, said today there was no reason why Iran should not have nuclear energy.

''I don't see why a country like Iran could not have nuclear as part of its energy mix,'' IEA Executive Director Claude Mandil told a news conference in Paris. The IEA has been an advocate of nuclear energy as a way to address future needs without polluting the planet.

''There is no energy reason why it should be denied nuclear,'' he said, although he added he understood the West's concerns.

REUTERS SG PM1925