Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday that his country will continue with its peaceful nuclear program in spite of UN Security Council demands that it suspend its uranium enrichment.

"Using nuclear energy for peaceful purposes is Iran's right. The Iranian nation has chosen this path...No one can stop it," he told a press conference in Tehran.

The Security Council adopted a resolution late July, urging Tehran to suspend by August 31 all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities, including research and development, or face sanctions.

Iran has rejected the resolution as having no legal basis. The Iranian president told reporters that Tehran still expects a positive outcome of its response to a six-nation nuclear package.

"I think the opportunity Iran has given to other countries is very exceptional for a fair resolution of the issue," Ahmadinejad said.

The package, agreed on by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council -  US, Russia, China, France, Britain - and Germany, includes both incentives aimed at persuading Iran to suspend uranium enrichment and possible sanctions if Iran does not comply.

Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani delivered Teheran's written response to the incentives package on August 22 and urged the six world powers to get back to negotiations, saying Iran was ready to start "serious talks" over its nuclear program.

Ahmadinejad said that it was "unlikely" the UN Security Council would act against Iran over its nuclear issue, but if it does, Iran will react.

"The time of using Security Council as a tool to impose injustice on us and other countries is over," he added.

"If they (the US and Britain) try to test the old ways to impose sanctions on us, our people will response to them in proper ways," vowed the Iranian president.

At the same press conference, Ahmadinejad proposed a live television debate with US President George W. Bush on world issues.

"I suggest holding a live TV debate with Mr. George W. Bush to talk about world affairs and the ways to solve those issues," he said.

But the US rejected the debate.

"Talk of a debate is just a diversion from the legitimate concerns that the international community, not just the US, has about Iran's behavior, from support for terrorism to pursuit of a nuclear weapons capability," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

Perino said the US was willing to talk to Iran "in the context of positive response to the P5+1 package".

Also on Tuesday, Britain's UN ambassador Jones Parry said the Security Council is expected to take up the Iranian nuclear issue in mid-September if Iran does not comply with the UN demand by Thursday.

"I would expect the dossier to come back into the council shortly, but only after a further period of discussion among capitals," Parry told reporters at UN headquarters. "I would expect activities here to resume toward the middle of September."

The 15 council members would first need to assess a report from the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), as requested by UN Resolution 1696, on Iranian compliance with the demand that it suspends uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities, he said.

Then the member states would have "a clearer view of exactly how this should be carried forward," he added.

If what Parry said is true, the discussion over the Iran nuclear issue would coincide with the annual General Assembly session which usually opens in mid-September when leaders from around the world come together to address major issues facing the world.

(Xinhua News Agency August 30, 2006)