(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-02-24 17:26

TEHRAN - Iran on Sunday warned it would hit back with a "deserving" response to new UN Security Council sanctions over its contested nuclear programme, as Western powers stepped up efforts to punish Tehran.

File picture shows Iranian MPs during a parliamentary session. A new UN Security Council resolution imposing sanctions against Iran over its nuclear drive will receive a "deserving" response from Tehran, the foreign ministry said on Sunday. [Agencies]

Britain, France and the United States are hoping a new sanctions resolution could be passed in the coming week after the UN atomic watchdog said it could still not confirm if the Iranian atomic drive was peaceful.

"In the case of the adoption of the resolution, we will make a deserving action. We will announce our decision at the right time based on the content of the resolution," foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said.

Hosseini gave no details over what Iran's response could involve.

He also brushed off the prospect of further sanctions, saying that they could only cause "slight problems" for the Islamic republic.

"It is not possible to sanction a country like Iran with so many natural resources and 15 regional neighbours. Sanctions are a defeated measure," he told reporters.

He indicated Iran would never give in to the main demand of world powers over its nuclear programme that it suspends uranium enrichment activities.

"Fighting with the rights of the Iranian nation will bear no more fruit than in the past three decades after the victory of the Islamic revolution. The Iranian nation has showed it will insist on protecting its rights."

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Friday in its latest report on Iran's nuclear drive that it had made "quite good progress" but was still not in a position to offer a verdict on Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

Crucially for the prospect of future sanctions, it also confirmed that Tehran was continuing to defy UN demands to halt uranium enrichment and had started developing more efficient centrifuges to produce enriched uranium.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the report provides "a very strong case" for moving forward with a third UN Security Council sanctions resolution to punish Tehran's failure to suspend enrichment.