Iran won146;t derail its nuclear programme

Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday said his country would move forward with its disputed nuclear programme despite international demands that it halt uranium enrichment...

Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday said his country would move forward with its disputed nuclear programme despite international demands that it halt uranium enrichment, comparing the programme to train without brakes, state-run radio reported.

The hardline leader also repeated his call for negotiations, saying the time for 8220;bullying8221; had expired.

8220;The train of the Iranian nation is without brakes and a rear gear,8221; the radio quoted Ahmadinejad as telling a gathering of Islamic clerics. 8220;We dismantled the rear gear and brakes of the train and threw them away sometime ago.8221;

Ahmadinejad8217;s comments come a day before senior officials of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council8212;Britain, the US, France, China and Russia 8211; and Germany were set to meet for an emergency summit in London to discuss measures against Tehran over its defiant nuclear stance.

Ahmadinejad said Western countries feel threatened by Iran8217;s nuclear programme because they feel their own powers are diminishing.

8220;The Westerners are not concerned about the existence and activity of 8230; centrifuges in Iran; they are concerned about the collapse of their hegemony and hollow power,8221; the radio quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.

Iran8217;s foreign minister said the US was in no position for another war, and maintained that negotiations8212;not threats8212;were the only way to resolve the standoff over its nuclear activities.

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Manouchehr Mottaki was responding to Vice-President Dick Cheney, who renewed Washington8217;s warning to Iran on Saturday that 8220;all options8221; were on the table if Tehran continued to defy UN demands to halt uranium enrichment.

Mottaki said the US could not afford to settle its differences with Iran by launching a third war after Afghanistan and Iraq. 8220;We do not see America in a position to impose another crisis on its tax payers inside America by starting another war in the region,8221; Mottaki told reporters later on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Iran on Sunday said it had successfully tested what it called a rocket that had reached space. The announcement, made on state-run television, was unclear, but appeared to refer to Iran8217;s efforts to launch commercial satellites into orbit. There were no other details beyond saying that Iran had successfully launched a space rocket or space missile.

8211;ALI AKBAR DAREINI