Iran says UN nuclear referral "not constructive"

Iran's case was referred back to the council after Tehran failed to respond to a set of proposals backed by six world powers which called for Tehran to halt uranium enrichment in return for economic and diplomatic incentives.

Tehran publicly insists it wants to talk but has refused to give up enrichment. Western diplomats said Iran's top nuclear negotiator gave no sign he was interested in negotiating when he met the European Union foreign policy chief on Tuesday.

"We believe that the proposed package is a suitable and acceptable basis to work on, but we believe that this package ... should be developed through talks," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told a weekly news conference, Reuters reports.

"The path of the Security Council is not a constructive path. The constructive path is holding talks ... If they refer the case to the Security Council, no matter what the (U.N.) resolution will be, it means that they have not adopted the path of talks," he said.

World powers have agreed to discuss at the United Nations Security Council next week Iran's failure to respond to a package of incentives to stop uranium enrichment. Iran says it will respond by August 22.

While Britain, France and the United States, as well as non-permanent Security Council member Germany, support economic sanctions if Iran fails to cooperate, such measures are not currently backed by veto-wielding Russia and China.

"Everything is on the table now. We certainly expect Russia and China to defend the ... legal rights of Iran," he said.

When asked whether Iran was relying on China and Russia's support to prevent the Security Council to intervene, Asefi said:" Our hopes are invested in God, our people and our own diplomatic capacity."

The West says Iran wants to enrich uranium to produce atomic bombs, a charge Iran denies. Tehran insists its nuclear ambitions are purely civilian.

Head of parliament's Foreign Affairs and National Security commission Allaeddin Boroujerdi reiterated Iran had no intention to abandon its enrichment work, as the world powers demand.

"It is our right to enrich uranium. Iran will never give it up," the official IRNA news agency quoted him as saying.