Monday, March 6 2006 11:47 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Vienna: The UN nuclear watchdog meets in Vienna today(Mar 6,2006) over Iran's nuclear programme as a top US official warned of 'tangible and painful consequences' if Tehran does not heed international demands to halt uranium enrichment.

Speaking to a powerful Israel lobby group in Washington yesterday, US Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton said the international community should 'use all tools at our disposal to stop the threat that the Iranian regime poses.'

"The Iranian regime must be made aware that if it continues down the path of international isolation there will be tangible and painful consequences," Bolton told the meeting of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

But Iran voiced defiance on the eve of the International Atomic Energy Agency's high level meeting, which is expected to clear the way for possible UN Security Council action over suspicions that Tehran is seeking nuclear weapons.

Iran will not freeze small-scale nuclear fuel work even if referred to the world body, the Islamic republic's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani said.

"Going to the Security Council will certainly not make Iran go back on research and development," Larijani told reporters in Tehran, adding that the Islamic republic would retaliate to such a move by pressing ahead with full-scale uranium enrichment.

Larijani said that Iran was not intending to use oil as a weapon in the dispute or quit the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) but warned this could change if the crisis worsened.