Tehran,:  A resolution by the UN Security Council against Iran will make the country more determined in its nuclear path, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani was Monday quoted as saying.
 
"A (UN) resolution against Iran would mean non-compliance to a peaceful settlement of the (Iranian nuclear) issue and would give us the sign that both sides should go their own way," Larijani said after his return from Moscow.
 
"In that case the Iranian nation would just get more determined on insisting on its right to pursue the nuclear path," he added.
 
He said during his talks in Moscow the Russian side also considered an anti-Iran resolution destructive to the logical and rational path of the nuclear course and spoke in favour of negotiations.
 
The UN Security Council has demanded that Iran suspend its uranium enrichment programmes or face possible sanctions. Iran has rejected this demand but voiced readiness to discuss the suspension demand with the five veto powers plus Germany, but without any preconditions.
 
"Suspension of the enrichment process is not the key issue but what is currently the basic point is acknowledgement of Iran's right to pursue nuclear technology," said Larijani, who is also secretary of the National Security Council.
 
Larijani had said last Friday that in case of an anti-Iran resolution, Tehran would halt cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad-Ali Hosseini, however, played down the threat.
 
He further confirmed that Iran plans to complete construction of 3,000 centrifuges by the end of the Iranian year on March 20, 2007.
 
Iran brought into operation its second uranium enrichment network last month. The network consists of two 164-machine nuclear centrifuge cascades designed to enrich uranium up to levels of three to five percent.
 
The US and its Western allies accuse the Islamic republic of seeking to build nuclear bombs. Iran rejects the claims and says it is planning to produce electricity, while insisting on its right to peaceful nuclear technology.