Iran Mocks European Nuclear Incentives

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, center top, talks with his Chinese counterpart Li Zhaoxing, bottom, during a meeting in Beijing, China, Tuesday, May 16, 2006. Lavrov is meeting with top Chinese leaders as the two countries coordinate their diplomacy on Iran's nuclear standoff. Others are unidentified. (AP Photo/Frederic J. Brown, Pool) (Frederic J. Brown - AP)

A light-water reactor is considered less likely to be misused for nuclear proliferation than a heavy-water facility, which produces plutonium waste.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi joined the president in the counterattack, mockingly offering the Europeans trade concessions if the EU dropped its opposition to the nuclear program.

"We are prepared to offer economic incentives to Europe in return for recognizing our right (to enrich uranium)," state radio quoted him as saying.

The fiery Ahmadinejad said Tehran had put its trust in the European Union in 2003 and suspended its nuclear activities as a confidence-building measure as negotiations continued. The EU then demanded that Iran permanently stop uranium enrichment.

"We won't be bitten twice," Ahmadinejad said.

The 2003 deal called for guarantees that Iran's nuclear program was only intended for building reactors for electricity generation and was not being used as a cover to develop weapons. Iran agreed to the request, but negotiations collapsed in August 2005 when the Europeans said the best guarantee was for Iran to permanently give up its uranium enrichment program.

Iran responded by resuming reprocessing activities at its uranium conversion facility in Isfahan.

On Wednesday, Ahmadinejad underlined Iran's determination to continue enrichment and scolded the Europeans for what he viewed as doing the dirty work of the Americans.

"We recommend that you not sacrifice your interests for the sake of others," he said.

Ahmadinejad also reissued his threat to pull out of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

"Don't force governments and nations to renounce their membership in the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty," he said asserting that Iran had the right to a civilian nuclear power program.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, meanwhile, said Tuesday that Beijing and Moscow would not vote for using force to resolve the nuclear dispute.

In a gesture to Tehran, Lavrov also said Ahmadinejad was attending a summit next month in Shanghai, China, of leaders from Russia, China and four Central Asian nations.

"We cannot isolate Iran or exert pressure on it," Lavrov said. "Far from resolving this issue of proliferation, it will make it more urgent."

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Associated Press Writer George Jahn in Vienna, Austria, contributed to this report.