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TEHRAN: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday vowed that Iran would not yield in the crisis over its nuclear drive but the White House warned again that it risks more sanctions if it fails to freeze sensitive nuclear work.
"The Iranian people are steadfast and will not step back an inch against the oppressive powers," Ahmadinejad told a rally in the southwestern province of Kohgelouyeh-Boyerahmad.
His defiant comments come after world powers warned Iran has only a fortnight to respond to their latest offer seeking to end a five-year crisis that has raised fears of regional conflict and sent oil prices spiralling.
The White House said it was still hopeful Tehran would suspend its controversial nuclear activities, otherwise more international sanctions would follow.
"We hope the Iranians will provide a positive answer," national security spokesman Gordon Johndroe said. But "if they do not, the international community is united that more sanctions are coming."
World powers have offered to start pre-negotiations during which Tehran would add no more uranium-enriching centrifuges and in return face no further sanctions - the so-called "freeze-for-freeze" approach.
Iran is already under three sets of UN Security Council sanctions over its refusal to halt sensitive uranium enrichment work, which the West fears could be aimed at making nuclear weapons.
The United States took the unprecedented step of sending a top diplomat to meet Iran's chief negotiator Saeed Jalili at Saturday's international talks in Geneva which ended in a stalemate.
On a visit to Israel, US presidential hopeful Barack Obama said on Wednesday that a nuclear Iran would "pose a grave threat and the world must prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon."
"I will take no options off the table in dealing with this potential Iranian threat," Obama said, while renewing his openness to meeting with representatives of the Islamic republic.
"I would at my time and choosing be willing to meet with any leader if I thought it would promote the national security interest of the United States of America," he said.
Ahmadinejad welcomed the US presence in the Geneva talks as a "positive step" and said that the US diplomat William Burns had talked "politely in the meeting and respected the Iranian nation."
But the president vowed that further sanctions would not force Iran to back down in the standoff.
"The Iranian nation does not value your threats. You are mistaken if you think you can force this nation to back down with sanctions, threats and pressure," he said.
Iran denies allegations of seeking nuclear weapons, insisting that its programme is designed to provide energy for its growing population when the OPEC member's reserves of fossil fuels run out.
Permanent Security Council members - Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States - plus Germany have made Iran an offer, which includes trade incentives and help with a civilian nuclear programme in return for suspending enrichment.
The New York Times on Tuesday released what it said was a two-page informal document that outlined Tehran's approach to talks in Geneva and was distributed by Iranian negotiators.
The paper called for seven more rounds of talks, stressed the need for an end to sanctions, and made no mention of an incentives package.
Iranian officials have repeatedly said they have no intention of freezing enrichment and that as a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Iran has the right to make its own nuclear fuel.
Hopes of a breakthrough rose in recent weeks after Ali Akbar Velayati, the top foreign policy advisor to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said it would be in Iran's interests to accept the package.
Ahmadinejad, who has already dismissed Velayati's comments as personal, reaffirmed that he was in charge of Iran's nuclear case.
"They (world powers) thought the nation was divided, that the people and the president had been sidelined in the nuclear case and that they would be able to impose their views.
"But I told them they were mistaken." - AFP/de
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