Iran halts IAEA inspection

8220;Iran has stopped all voluntary measures that it undertook in the past two-and-a-half to three years,8221; Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told a news conference. 8220;We have no commitment to the Additional Protocol any more8230;We had two clear options. One was to decide to abandon our nuclear rights, the other to preserve our rights. We chose resistance,8221; Mottaki added.

The Security Council has the power to impose political and economic sanctions on Iran but there are divisions among its five permanent members8212;the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China8212;about how to deal with Tehran.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov on Sunday doubted sanctions would have much effect. Russia is helping build Iran8217;s only nuclear power station and Russia8217;s LUKOIL is investing in an Iranian oilfield. China gets 12 per cent of its oil imports from the Islamic Republic.

Ivanov said IAEA head Mohamed El Baradei wanted a reply to his questions before the agency8217;s governing board meets again in early March.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday said nothing could deflect Tehran8217;s pursuit of atomic know-how.

8220;Content yourself with as many resolutions as you like, you cannot prevent the will of the Iranian people,8221; he said.

Iran has warned that any sanctions against it would send oil prices beyond a level industrialised economies could bear. Abdolrahim Moussavi, head of Iran8217;s joint chiefs of staff, warned that any military strike against Iran8217;s atomic facilities would be useless.

8220;We are not seeking a military confrontation, but if that happens we will give the enemy a lesson that will be remembered throughout history,8221; he was quoted as saying by the ISNA students news agency. 8212;Reuters