Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki warned in Teheran on Sunday that Iran would revise its policy of being committed to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) if the country's right to peaceful nuclear technology could not be secured.

"If we concluded that the current policy (on the NPT) cannot protect the country's right, we may revise and change it," Mottaki told reporters when asked on the possibility of Iran's withdrawal from the treaty on the sidelines of an international meeting.

However, Mottaki expressed confidence that there was still space for all concerned parties to reach an agreement through negotiations over Iran's nuclear program.

Mottaki made the comments four days after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) board of governors submitted an assessment report over Iran's nuclear file to the UN Security Council.

Envoys of the five permanent members of the Security Council, the United States, Russia, Britain, France and China, convened in secret sessions on Wednesday and Friday at the UN headquarters in New York in preparation for the 15-member council to discuss the issue next week.

However, the five countries failed to reach an agreement on the move that the Security Council should take on Iran as the US and Britain are inclined to adopt a hard-worded presidential statement which Russia fears will lead to a counterproductive effect.

Iran has said that it will continue talks with the international community to find a solution to its nuclear dispute in spite of the negative situation but will never give in under pressures and bullies.

Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi said on Sunday at his weekly news briefing that the Russian compromise proposal aimed to defuse the current nuclear tension would no longer be on the agenda of Tehran due to "changes of the circumstances."

Russia proposed last December that Iran transfer its uranium enrichment to Russian soil, holding that the offer would secure Iran's legal nuclear rights while guaranteeing the peaceful use of the technology.

Iran suggested last month that it be allowed to enrich uranium on a small scale at home in exchange for moving large-scale enrichment to Russia.

The US and the European Union (EU) have expressed readiness to accept the Russian compromise plan but insisted that Iran could not be permitted to do any enrichment work on its own territory.

Denouncing the Security Council's involvement, Asefi also threatened that Iran would resume large-scale enrichment in several days, saying "we are waiting for the outcome of the Permanent Five's discussions."

The spokesman further said that Iran would reject the requirement made by the Security Council to re-suspend the enrichment-related activities, which Tehran had once frozen but resumed in steps since last August.

The tension over the Iranian nuclear issue has been dramatically intensified since the IAEA board of governors in early February adopted a resolution to report Iran's case to the UN Security Council.

The resolution also urges Iran to suspend all work related to enrichment and fully cooperate with the UN nuclear watchdog, calling on the Security Council to withhold punitive actions until the March 8 IAEA meeting.

Rejecting the resolution, Iran disallowed IAEA's snap inspections of nuclear sites and resumed small-scale enrichment work in retaliation.

After the IAEA's Wednesday submission of the report on Iran's nuclear program to the UN Security Council, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei stressed that the involvement of the Security Council was "just a new phase of diplomacy, not the end of it."

Uranium enrichment is the key step for constructing nuclear fuel cycle, but highly enriched uranium can be used for building nuclear weapons.

(Xinhua News Agency March 13, 2006)