Iran says to set terms for any new nuclear talks

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran is ready to resume stalled nuclear talks with major powers if terms Tehran will announce soon are met, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday, a week after the oil producer was hit by a new round of sanctions.

Ahmadinejad made clear Iran's "nuclear path" would not be negotiable in any such discussions, highlighting Tehran's defiance despite growing international pressure over atomic activities the West suspects are aimed at making bombs.

Iran's determination to press ahead with work, which it says is aimed at generating power, was underlined by an official announcing plans to build four more medical research reactors.

The Islamic state said in February it launched higher-grade uranium enrichment to provide fuel for its existing research reactor in Tehran, a move that sparked alarm in the West because it brought it closer to the level needed for a bomb.

Ahmadinejad said Iran was in favour of talks but that the situation had changed and "it is now our turn to make a move to force you to behave," in reference to world powers including the United States, Russia and China.

"If they think they can use sticks to pressure Iran, we say that the Iranian nation will break all of their sticks," said Ahmadinejad, who often rails against the West.

He added in a televised speech in the western city of Shahr- e Kord: "They will take to the grave the wish of overstepping the Iranian nation's rights by (even the smallest amount)."

NEW RESEARCH REACTORS

Iran, the world's fifth-largest oil producer, says its nuclear programme is peaceful and primarily aimed at generating electricity to meet booming demand.

But its refusal to halt uranium enrichment, a process which can have both civilian and military uses, has drawn four rounds of U.N. sanctions as well as separate U.S. steps. The European Union is planning its own tighter sanctions against the country.

Ahmadinejad said Iran would not "withdraw from our nuclear path even one iota" because of sanctions.

"We are ready to resume talks with them...but we have conditions that will be announced soon," he said.

Last year, hopes of a breakthrough in the dispute were dashed after Western diplomats said Iran back-tracked on a nuclear fuel swap plan tentatively agreed in Geneva in October.

It had been seen as a way to ease tensions with Iran removing an amount of low-enriched uranium that could have been used for an atomic bomb, if enriched to high levels, and receive 20 percent fuel in return for the Tehran research reactor.

Turkey and Brazil last month resurrected parts of the proposal, in the hope this would remove the need for sanctions.

But the United States, France and Russia voiced doubts about the revised offer, saying Iran must stop the enrichment of 20 percent purity it started four months ago, up from some 5 percent previously. A level of 90 percent is needed for a bomb.

Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, said on Wednesday the country would construct four new and more powerful research reactors, state television reported.

Western analysts have voiced doubt about Iran's capability of producing the fuel needed for such reactors, but Salehi said it would be produced before September.

"Iran plans to build more research reactors to become exporter of cancer medicine to Islamic and regional countries."

(Writing by Parisa Hafezi and Fredrik Dahl; editing by Diana Abdallah)

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