Iran Defies UN Sanctions In Pursuit of Nuclear

Iran is to press ahead with its controversial nuclear work regardless of any new UN sanctions, the country's president has announced.

"The Iranian nation has chosen its path and will continue with it," says President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, according to news agency ISNA.

The US says Iran plans to build nuclear weapons, but Iran has repeatedly stated it only plans to build nuclear plants to generate electricity.

World powers agreed this week to outline a third set of sanctions against Iran, but diplomats said the draft did not contain the punitive economic measures Washington had been pushing for, writes Reuters.

The UN Security Council imposed two sets of sanctions on Iran in December 2006 and March 2007.

By staff writer