Friday, April 28 2006 17:00 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Tehran: Hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad believes Iran can soon become a world superpower, official media said today (Apr 28, 2006) as the regime defied a UN demand to freeze sensitive nuclear work.

"The Iranian nation's achievement of peaceful nuclear energy is so important that it could change the world equation," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying during a visit to the northern province of Zanjan.

"The Islamic republic of Iran has the capacity to quickly become a world superpower," he said. "If we believe in ourselves no other power can be compared to us," he said.

"We do not need weapons or military expeditions, because our position in the world is rising and Iran's words have now influenced all the world's equations," added the firebrand leader.

The UN Security Council had set Tehran a non-binding 30-day deadline which ran out on today to comply with demands to halt uranium enrichment work.

Enrichment makes fuel for civilian nuclear reactors but which can also be the explosive core of atom bombs.

But Iran has refused to comply, arguing that it only wants to generate atomic energy. The deadlock has prompted call from Western powers for tough UN action, while the US has also not ruled out taking military action.