TEHRAN, Dec 5: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday said a US intelligence report on Iran’s nuclear programme was a “great victory” and vowed never to yield to western pressure to halt the contested drive.

The report by the US intelligence community said Iran halted a drive for atomic weapons in 2003 — despite years of statements by US President George W.

Bush accusing Tehran of actively seeking a nuclear bomb.

“This report tries to extract America from its impasse but it also is a declaration of the Iranian people’s victory against the great powers,” Ahmadinejad told thousands of supporters at a rally in Ilam province.

“With the help of God, our people have resisted, are resisting and will resist until the end. You are victorious in all areas and especially in nuclear,” he said in the speech, broadcast live on state television.

He accused Iran’s enemies of wanting to deprive it of civilian energy when fossil fuels run out “within the next 50 years”.

The National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) said that US allegations about Iran’s atomic goals had been overblown for at least two years, although it could have the capability to make a nuclear weapon by 2015.

But Bush was adamant that the Islamic republic remained a threat to global security. He refused to rule out military action and called on US allies to step up pressure against Tehran.

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed ElBaradei, whose inspectors have been investigating Iran’s nuclear drive for four years, called for immediate negotiations between Iran and its Western critics.

But western powers urged the UN Security Council to agree a third UN sanctions resolution to punish Iran’s refusal to suspend uranium enrichment, a potential bomb-making process and the key sticking point in the crisis.

“There is time for diplomacy to work, but there isn’t time to stop and say ‘we don’t need the diplomacy,’” said US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

A diplomat at the UN Security Council, asking to remain anonymous, confirmed six major powers were expecting to begin work soon on drafting a resolution for new sanctions against Tehran to put before the council. But China’s UN ambassador Wang Guangya suggested the six powers’ agreement to seek new sanctions could be called into question by the US intelligence assessment.

“I think Council members will have to consider that, because ... now things have changed,” he told reporters.

However Russian President Vladimir Putin — who like China has been reluctant in the past to to see fresh UN sanctions against Iran — urged Tehran to suspend uranium enrichment.—AFP