Friday, April 7 2006 20:15 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Tehran: Iran will defend its controversial nuclear programme to its 'last drop of blood' and refuse to suspend uranium enrichment as demanded by the UN Security Council, a senior cleric said today (Apr 07, 2006).

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors, meanwhile, flew in to Iran to visit its uranium enrichment facility and other sites, an official of the Islamic republic's atomic energy agency said.

Mohammad Saidi, the Iranian agency's vice president, said the inspectors would start work tomorrow and visit the enrichment facility in Natanz and uranium conversion plant in Isfahan.

"We want our rights and nothing more, and we will resist until our last drop of blood," Hojatoleslam Ahmad Khatami said in a Friday prayer sermon broadcast on state radio.

"They want to create a crisis. The Security Council, which ought to be an instrument of justice, wants to create insecurity and injustice," the ultra-conservative cleric charged.

"They have set a one-month deadline for us to suspend our research on enrichment. They can set a one-month delay, one for a year or whatever they want. We will not renounce our rights."

A non-binding statement approved unanimously by the world body on March 29 gave the Islamic republic 30 days to abandon the sensitive nuclear work, but without issuing a threat of sanctions.