LONDON - Iran pledged to pursue its disputed atomic programme as Europe's top diplomat met Tehran's main nuclear negotiator on Friday in a last effort to avert tougher sanctions.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said late on Thursday that nothing would deflect the Islamic Republic from its pursuit of nuclear technology and that Washington had "lost" in its attempts to stop them.
"The Iranian nation will never return from the path that they have chosen and they are determined and decisive to continue this path (to obtain nuclear technology)," Mottaki was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency.
The West says Iran's nuclear programme is aimed at building atom bombs. Iran, a major oil exporter, says efforts to enrich uranium are intended only to produce electricity.
Diplomats and analysts say Iran will see little reason to relent in its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment given that six big powers remain at odds over how soon to resort to more United Nations penalties and how harsh they should be.
Tehran said earlier this week that Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili would put forward "new initiatives" to European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana in London on Friday, without giving further details.
But it said there will be no talk about suspension of nuclear fuel work, a key demand of the U.N. Security Council without which Iran will face a third, wider round of sanctions.
Jalili replaced Ali Larijani as chief nuclear negotiator in October. Close to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, he is seen by analysts as signalling a hardening of Iran's position.
"America is angry with Iran over its nuclear programme but they know that the cost of attacking Iran will be very high," Mottaki told a gathering of the Basij religious militia. "America has lost in its nuclear challenge with Iran."
