Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told a gathering of Iranian ambassadors late Monday that "the position of the United States and certain Western countries, which require Iran to give up nuclear technology is unsuitable, unjust and oppressive, and the Islamic Republic of Iran will never accept these requests."

"The conditions in which the United States deals with the rest of the world as a creditor, always asking for more, make any weakness and surrender the greatest strategic error," the state news agency IRNA reported him as saying.

"Iranian nuclear science is indigenous and peaceful, and the Islamic Republic of Iran, based on religious principles, will never use weapons of mass destruction," Khamenei added.

On Monday Tehran said it was still discussing with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) whether to allow snap UN inspections of its nuclear sites.

"We are still discussing the additional protocol" to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), foreign ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi said.

Tehran is under strong international pressure to prove it is not secretly developing atomic weapons by signing the extra NPT clause, which would allow UN inspectors to descend on suspect sites without warning.

The IAEA's board of governors will review the Iranian case on September 8, with the threat that it might be forwarded to the UN Security Council.

Asefi told reporters "to wait and see what will happen during the (September 8) meeting."

"Any decision will depend on the explanations given by the agency, on the ambiguities that exist (over the additional protocol), our responsibilities and those of the international community with regard to Iran," he added.

Oil-rich Iran said Thursday it was going ahead with the second phase of a nuclear power plant to satisfy its growing demand for power and prevent long-term energy shortages, denying US allegations that it is covertly developing nuclear weapons.

Two IAEA delegations of inspectors and lawyers visited Iran last week to try to ease fears over the implications of the additional protocol and to inspect nuclear sites.

Following the visit, Gholamreza Aghazadeh, head of the Islamic republic's atomic agency, said Wednesday that discussions with IAEA experts had eased "some of Iran's uncertainties," particularly with regard to military secrets and strategy.

He said Tehran and the IAEA should reach "positive" results by September over the additional protocol.

But the Iranian press quoted diplomatic sources as saying that IAEA inspectors found traces of enriched uranium.

Questioned about this by reporters, Asefi said: "It was not up to the diplomats to speak about such a technical and expert subject without knowing the details. It is up to the agency to judge and to give its point of view. We will wait until September."

However, it remains uncertain as to whether Iran will ultimately agree to a new deal with the IAEA.

Some Iranian conservatives are opposed to the NPT additional protocol and have even called on Tehran to renounce the treaty, fearing that IAEA inspectors would use it to violate military and strategic secrets.

Ali Larijani, the head of Iranian radio and television, said Sunday that there is "no guarantee that the Americans, after the signing of the additional protocol and inspections of nuclear installations, will not invent other pretexts to accuse Iran of developing weapons of mass destruction."

"There is no reason to accept signing the additional protocol because they (NPT members) did not help the Islamic republic of Iran to develop nuclear technology," added Larijani, who was appointed by Khamenei.

If "Tehran resists the pressures, the Westerners will end up changing their stance towards Iran," he concluded.

All rights reserved. Copyright 2003 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.

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