Iran won't back off from N-agenda: Ahmadinejad

The comments — broadcast live on state TV — contrasted sharply with Western warnings that Iran appears to be engaged in a dangerous defiance of international demands to control the Islamic Republic’s nuclear ambitions.

In Paris, Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said France would support boosting sanctions against Tehran to an “unprecedented scale” if Iran stonewalls investigations, even as Israel and others say that military options are still possible. Meanwhile, Iran’s chief allies, China and Russia, have issued cautious statements calling for diplomacy and dialogue.

“This nation won’t retreat one iota from the path it is going,” Ahmadinejad told thousands of people in Shahr-e-Kord in central Iran. “Why are you ruining the prestige of the (UN nuclear) agency for absurd US claims?”  He strongly chided the International Atomic Energy Agency, saying it is discrediting itself by siding with “absurd” US accusations.

The 13-page annex to the IAEA’s report released on Tuesday included claims that while some of Iran’s activities have civilian as well as military applications, others are “specific to nuclear weapons.”

Ahmadinejad repeated Iran’s claims that it doesn't make sense to build nuclear weapons in a world already awash with atomic arms. “The Iranian nation is wise. It won’t build two bombs against 20,000 (nuclear) bombs you have,” he said, apparently directed at the West and others. “But it builds something you can’t respond to: Ethics, decency, monotheism and justice.”