"If a resolution is passed... it will have serious and logical consequences and we will announce them later," Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told a press conference.

His comments came as the Security Council was due on Monday to review a proposed third set of sanctions over Tehran's refusal to halt uranium enrichment, while Russia confirmed the final delivery of fuel for Iran's first nuclear power plant.

The sanctions package was agreed last week by foreign ministers of the council's five veto-wielding permanent members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- plus Germany.

Iran is already under two sets of UN sanctions for its refusal to halt enrichment, the process which makes nuclear fuel but can be extended to make the fissile core of an atom bomb.

But Tehran, OPEC's number two oil exporter, insists it has a right to enrichment to make fuel to meet increasing energy needs of its population and denies charges its nuclear programme has military aims.

And Mottaki said a new resolution "will not affect Iran's determination to pursue its rights in using nuclear energy."

Mottaki said the 15-member Security Council should wait for a March meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency board of governors before taking a decision.

"The IAEA final report will confirm that there has not been any deviation" in Iran's nuclear programme towards weapons development, he said.

"If the IAEA reports that Iran has not deviated in past, the Security Council should be brave enough to make amends and cancel the two resolutions, and allow the IAEA to supervise our work like all member states."

Despite a four-year probe into Tehran's atomic drive, the UN nuclear watchdog has so far been unable to certify whether it is peaceful.

On January 13, the IAEA announced that Iran had agreed to clear up remaining questions on its nuclear programme -- including any military activity -- in four weeks.

Under a "work plan" agreed between the IAEA and Tehran in August, Iran originally had until the end of the year to clear up all outstanding issues.

A US intelligence report in December said that Iran halted a nuclear weapons programme in 2003, but Washington is pushing for further sanctions to stop Tehran's enrichment programme.

The proposed new measures include an outright travel ban by officials involved in Iran's nuclear and missile programmes and inspections of shipments to and from Iran if there are suspicions of prohibited goods.

Diplomats said approval of the package, presented to the council's 10 non-permanent members on Friday, was likely to take several weeks.

A meeting of the 15 council ambassadors to discuss the measures was scheduled for Friday but postponed until Monday because of the council's heavy schedule.

Meanwhile, Russia said it had completed fuel deliveries for Iran's first nuclear power plant in the Gulf port of Bushehr with the arrival of an eighth consignment.

"The final delivery has been completed.... It was 8.6 tonnes of uranium," the Russian contractor Atomstroiexport's spokeswoman Irina Yesipova told AFP.

Asked if the plant would go on line this year, she said: "Ideally, yes. If all the conditions are met, then it will."

Last month, Mottaki said the Bushehr reactor would be working at 50 percent capacity by mid-2008.

After delivering the first shipment of fuel in December, Russia said Iran no longer needed to pursue its own uranium enrichment, a message repeated by US President George W. Bush who has branded Iran a threat to world peace.

But Iranian MPs are already mulling retaliatory action over the stance of Western powers, with a parliamentary committee on Monday discussing reducing economic ties with France over President Nicolas Sarkozy's "unfriendly" stance.

Since Sarkozy's election in May, France -- which has prominent roles in the Islamic republic'ss car market and energy industry -- has considerably toughened its position in the nuclear standoff.

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