Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Monday that the change for the United States is "a necessity not an option," the semi-official Fars news agency reported on Tuesday.

The failure of the U.S. policies has made change for the United States "a necessity not an option," Mottaki was quoted as saying.

He made the remarks in an address to students of Tarbiat Moddarres University in Tehran on Monday.

"(U.S. President Barack) Obama acts as if he had perceived the message of necessity of change... We respectfully and precisely monitor and review comments raised by Obama regarding change. If there is an attempt in Washington for change of behavior we will welcome it," he said.

Concerning talks between the two countries, he commented that "resumption of Iran-U.S. ties in diplomatic and political sense of the word are not on (Iran's) agenda."

However, "It does not mean that we have defined a strategy for permanent animosity between the two countries," he added.

Iran's Parliament (Majlis) Speaker Ali Larijani on Monday criticized U.S. senators' move on gasoline sanctions against Iran.

"The recent bill proposed by a group of American senators to ban the export of gasoline to Iran is an indication of their stupidity and they should wait for Iran's response," Larijani was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency.

Washington has been trying to beef up its sanctions against Tehran for being involved in anti-U.S. activities and allegedly developing nuclear weapons secretly.

Iran has denied the charges and insisted that its nuclear program is for generating electricity only. The UN Security Council has imposed three sanctions on Iran for its ongoing uranium enrichment program.

(Xinhua News Agency May 6, 2009)