US President George W. Bush refused today to rule out nuclear strikes against Iran if diplomacy fails to curb the Islamic Republic's atomic ambitions.
Iran, which says its nuclear programme is purely peaceful, told world powers it would pursue atomic technology, whatever they decided at a meeting in Moscow today.
Iranian women walk past a satirical mural of the Statue of Liberty on the wall of the former US embassy in Tehran. Photo: REUTERS/Morteza Nikoubazl
Iran's defiance of world pressure to halt the programme drove oil prices to a record high of $72.64 a barrel, raising fears of a cut in supplies from the world's fourth biggest crude exporter.
Mr Bush said in Washington he would discuss Iran's nuclear activities with China's President Hu Jintao this week and avoided ruling out nuclear retaliation if diplomatic efforts fail.
Asked if options included planning for a nuclear strike, Mr Bush replied: "All options are on the table. We want to solve this issue diplomatically and we're working hard to do so."
Speculation about a US attack has mounted since a report in New Yorker magazine said this month that Washington was mulling the option of using tactical nuclear weapons to knock out Iran's subterranean nuclear sites.
The United States, which accuses Iran of seeking atom bombs, was expected to push for targeted sanctions against Tehran when it met the UN Security Council's other permanent members - Britain, France, China and Russia - plus Germany in Moscow. Russia and China oppose sanctions and the use of force.
Deputy foreign ministers from the six nations are meeting ahead of an end-April deadline for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to report on whether Iran is complying with UN demands that it halt uranium enrichment.
"I recommend that they do not make hasty decisions, be prudent and study their path in the past. Any time they have pressured Iran they have got adverse results," Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said.
"Whatever the result of this meeting might be, Iran will not abandon its rights (to nuclear technology)," he added.
In Washington, US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said that preliminary discussions in Moscow indicated "that there is wide agreement on the fact that Iran can't be allowed to possess the means to develop a nuclear weapon."
But he made a point of stressing no major decisions would be taken in Moscow and the meeting's goal was to make preparations for decisions to be taken in various capitals.
Iran defied UN demands by declaring last week it had enriched uranium to a level used in power stations and was aiming for industrial-scale production, ratcheting up tensions.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, speaking at an annual military parade, said the army was ready to defend the nation. "It will cut off the hands of any aggressors and will make any aggressor regret it," Mr Ahmadinejad declared. Iran says it will not drop its right to enrich uranium for peaceful use but that it will work with the IAEA.
The UN nuclear watchdog says it has been unable to verify that Iran's nuclear programme is purely civilian, but has found no hard proof of efforts to build atomic weapons. IAEA inspectors are due in Iran on Friday to visit nuclear sites, including one at Natanz where Iran says it has enriched uranium to 3.5 per cent, the level used in nuclear power plants.
The United States, which already enforces its own sweeping sanctions on Iran, wants the Security Council to be ready to take strong diplomatic action, including so-called targeted measures such as a freeze on assets and visa curbs. Washington says it does not want to embargo Iran's oil and gas industries to avoid creating hardship for the Iranian people
China, which sent an envoy to Iran on Friday to try to defuse the standoff, repeated a call for a negotiated solution.
Russia restated its opposition to punitive action. "We are convinced that neither the sanctions route nor the use of force route will lead to a solution of this problem," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said, Itar-Tass news agency reported.