TEHRAN, April 9: Iran’s president on Wednesday warned the West to expect a “bloody nose” over mounting pressure on Iran to halt its sensitive uranium enrichment activities, state television reported.

The five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany will meet on April 16 in Shanghai to discuss whether to sweeten incentives they had offered Iran in 2006 to curb its nuclear programme.

In a televised address from the northeastern city of Mashhad, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad insisted Iran would never abandon its atomic work, which the West fears is a cover to build nuclear bombs. Iran says its work is to produce energy.

“The Iranian nation will bloody the enemy’s (the West’s) nose if they want to violate an iota of our rights (to nuclear technology),” he said without elaborating.

The Security Council has imposed three rounds of sanctions on Iran for refusing council’s demand to suspend its uranium enrichment activities, which can be used to make fuel for power plants or atomic bombs, if refined much further.

Iran, which says it wants nuclear technology to generate electricity, has so far ruled out halting or limiting its nuclear work in exchange for trade and other incentives, and says it will only negotiate with the U.N. nuclear watchdog.—Reuters