The statement came on the day, when the head of the UN nuclear watchdog is to give his final assessment of Iran's compliance with the demand to halt uranium enrichment, which is capable of producing nuclear fuel and weapons grade material. The Security Council-set deadline for Iran expires February 21, after which the issue could return to the UN for further debate.
"They [the West] have proposed talks on the Iran nuclear issue on the condition we suspend our nuclear activities," Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in televised remarks. "We are prepared for talks, but on just conditions."
Ahmadinejad said Western countries should also end similar activities on their soil for negotiations to be fair.
"They [Western powers] set preliminary conditions for the talks and want to deprive our people of its legitimate rights. They say to resume talks we must suspend our civilian nuclear research. The Iranian people believe this condition to be unacceptable," the president said.
Iran has consistently shrugged off suspicions that it seeks nuclear weapons saying it only wants nuclear fuel for energy generation, which is in line with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
The defiant Iranian leader also warned the international community against using force to make Tehran comply with its demands as it "will be defeated by the strong will of the Iranian people."
In an interview with The Financial Times ahead of a meeting with Iran's nuclear negotiator Tuesday, Mohamed ElBaradei, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said Tehran should not be set preconditions for talks and Washington should not push for stricter sanctions or to marginalize the Islamic Republic encouraging it to build nuclear weapons.
"Even if [the Iranians] were not going to develop a nuclear weapon today, this would be a sure recipe for them to go down that route." ElBaradei said.
In December, the UN Security Council imposed sanctions on Iran, banning sensitive technology transfers to and restricting financial transactions with the country. The issue will return to the Council following ElBaradei's report, where the U.S. is expected to push for more sanctions.
Further sanctions could result in a complete or partial severance of economic, diplomatic and other ties with Iran.
Russia and China, key economic partners of Iran and veto-wielding Security Council members, which have been opposed to drastic measures against Tehran advocating diplomacy.
Ahmadinejad said February 11 that Tehran would announce "great and unprecedented successes" in the nuclear sphere before April 9, which analysts said could refer to plans to open new enrichment centrifuges in the Natanz center.
Iran earlier said it would build 3,000 centrifuges by the end of March 2007 to accelerate enrichment processes currently being done at two "cascades" consisting of 164 centrifuges each.
