TEHRAN - Iran rejected on Tuesday UN Security Council conditions that it suspend uranium enrichment in return for talks on its controversial nuclear programme.
"If suspending uranium enrichment is a prior condition for negotiations, it is impossible to respond positively to this," Deputy Foreign Minister Mehdi Mostafavi said in remarks reported by the ISNA student news agency.
The international community has demanded that Iran suspend enrichment, which it fears could be used to make nuclear weapons. Tehran rejects the demand, insisting its nuclear programme is for peaceful energy purposes.
On Saturday the Security Council unanimously approved further sanctions against Iran for persistently refusing to stop enriching uranium.
The resolution, agreed after days of behind-the-scenes bargaining, blocks all Iranian arms exports and freezes the overseas assets of 28 additional officials and institutions linked to Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.
It also restricts financial aid or loans to Tehran, and sets a fresh 60-day deadline for Iran to comply with UN demands or face "further appropriate measures."
"We are continuing our peaceful nuclear activities under the terms of the Non-Proliferation Treaty and the International Atomic Energy Agency, and in this context we are ready for talks with the agency and Security Council members," Mostafavi said.
After the resolution was approved, the five permanent members of the Security Council -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- plus Germany issued a statement saying the crisis should be solved through negotiations.
European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana was then tasked with contacting Iran's lead nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, to discuss how such talks might resume.
On Sunday Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki called the sanctions "illegal and unjustified" and stressed that "all questions about Iran's nuclear programme have been answered."
Solana spoke by telephone with Larijani on Monday and "explained to him the position of the international community and the EU on the developments at the UN Security Council and reminded him that the international community wants to resolve this question through negotiations," Solana's spokeswoman said in Brussels.
Larijani stressed Iran's wish also to resolve the problem through negotiations, while adding that sanctions were unacceptable, she added.
03/27/2007 13:18 GMT