Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed on Sunday that his country would not suspend its nuclear activity.

However, under domestic pressure to tone down aggressive rhetoric which his critics say have helped push Iran toward international isolation, Ahmadinejad stated international regulations would be respected. He still rejected a UN demand to suspend uranium enrichment.

Iran has until February 21 to halt uranium enrichment, a process able to process fuel for power stations or, if greatly enriched, material for warheads. A UN sanctions resolution passed last December threatens Iran with further measures should it refuse to comply.

"We are ready for talks but will not suspend our activities," Ahmadinejad told hundreds of thousands of Iranians in Teheran's Azadi (Freedom) square to mark the 1979 Islamic revolution, saying suspension would be "humiliation".

Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, met European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana in Germany Sunday to discuss the row. Speaking after the meeting, Solana said that although no deal was reached, possible solutions were being explored.

Solana said he held a "good meeting" with Larijani in Munich and said the Iranian negotiator would continue talks with other Western politicians. "We will try to see if we can recuperate a sense of dialogue and find any possible solutions," Solana said.

The United States, sending a message to Iran by dispatching a second aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf, has stated nothing would be acceptable short of full suspension.

French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy spoke out, saying the international community's demand was "exceedingly clear".

"(Iran) can accept what the international community has said and suspend its sensitive nuclear activities and then we would be ready to suspend our sanctions in the United Nations Security Council," he told French radio.

Ahmadinejad stated Iran would work within the "regulations and treaties" of the UN International Atomic Energy Agency.

He addressed demonstrators waving banners saying "Nuclear energy is our obvious right" that Iran would announce "great" achievements leading up to April 9, "especially nuclear" developments. He further insisted Iran's atomic work was peaceful.

Although often the most vocal, Ahmadinejad does not wield executive power in Iran. The final say lies with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who backs the call for Iran to maintain its peaceful atomic ambitions.

Diplomats have revealed a proposal being weighed by certain European states would permit Iran to keep an enrichment infrastructure totaling several hundred centrifuges but block fuelling thee machines during talks.

Iran Nuclear Issue

(China Daily via agencies February 12, 2007)