August 20, 2003	Wednesday	Jumadi-us-Sani 21, 1424

TEHRAN, Aug 19: Iran’s supreme leader has said his country will never give up its nuclear technology under pressure from the United States and others, who are urging Tehran to agree to more stringent inspections of its programmes.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told a gathering of Iranian ambassadors late on Monday that “the position of the United States and certain Western countries, which require Iran to give up nuclear technology is unsuitable, unjust and oppressive, and the Islamic Republic of Iran will never accept these requests.”

“The conditions in which the United States deals with the rest of the world as a creditor, always asking for more, make any weakness and surrender the greatest strategic error,” the state news agency IRNA reported him as saying.

“Iranian nuclear science is indigenous and peaceful, and the Islamic Republic of Iran, based on religious principles, will never use weapons of mass destruction,” Mr Khamenei added.

On Monday Tehran said it was still discussing with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) whether to allow snap UN inspections of its nuclear sites.

The IAEA’s board of governors will review the Iranian case on Sept 8, with the threat that it might be forwarded to the UN Security Council.

Two IAEA delegations of inspectors and lawyers visited Iran last week to try to ease fears over the implications of the additional protocol and to inspect nuclear sites.—AFP