Top Official: Iran Needs Nuclear Fuel

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, right, welcomes his Syrian counterpart Bashar Assad during an official welcoming ceremony for Assad, in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, Feb. 17, 2007. (AP Photo) (AP)

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran's top leader said Saturday the country's oil and gas reserves will eventually dry up and defended the drive to produce nuclear fuel, claiming it was the only way to avoid dependence on the West for energy.

"Oil and gas reserves won't last forever. If a nation doesn't think of producing its future energy needs, it will be dependent on domination-seeking powers," state television quoted Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as saying.

Iran produces 4.2 million barrels of oil per day, the second largest exporter of crude among the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC. It has the world's second largest natural gas reserves.

The country's recoverable oil reserves are estimated at 137 billion barrels, or 12 percent of the world's overall reserves. Iran's gas reserves are believed to stand at 28 trillion cubic meters.

The United States and its European allies have disputed Iran's nuclear program _ which Tehran says is only for producing fuel and not for making weapons.

Iran's officials have argued they need alternate energy sources for when oil reserves run out and say they see no reason why some of the most advanced technology should be off limits.

Tehran plans to produce 20,000 megawatts of electricity through nuclear power plants in the next two decades.

Khamenei said those who say Iran does not need nuclear technology are "shallow-minded."

A U.S. defense official on Saturday said Washington was not seeking military confrontation or regime change in Iran despite Tehran's defiance of international demands to halt uranium enrichment.

Speaking at a weapons conference in the United Arab Emirates capital Abu Dhabi, Mark Kimmitt, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East, said an "increasingly belligerent Iran" believes it can "control, threaten and intimidate."

But Kimmitt, a former U.S. Army brigadier general, said he believed "diplomacy is the best solution" to solving the Iran crisis.

"We do not seek a military confrontation. We do not seek regime change," he told an audience at the opening day of the 2007 International Defense Exhibition and Conference.