A defiant Iran yesterday ended snap UN checks of its nuclear sites and said it was resuming uranium enrichment, a day after being reported to the Security Council over concerns it is building nuclear weapons.

Diplomats warned the response could escalate the dispute over the nuclear ambitions of the world's fourth biggest oil exporter. Tehran insists it needs nuclear technology only to generate electricity.

?Iran has stopped all voluntary measures that it undertook in the past two-and-a-half to three years,? Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told a news conference. ?We have no commitment to the Additional Protocol any more.?

Iran?s main measure was the suspension of uranium enrichment. If enriched to a low level, uranium can be used in power stations. If enriched further to weapons-grade, it can be used in warheads. Iran signed the Additional Protocol to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 2003, thereby allowing short-notice inspections of its atomic sites.

The International Atomic Energy Agency voted on Saturday to report Iran to the Security Council, but the top UN body will take no action until an IAEA report on Iran is delivered in March.

The Security Council has the power to impose political and economic sanctions on Iran but there are divisions among its five permanent members ? the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China ? about how to deal with Tehran.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said nothing could deflect Tehran's pursuit of atomic know-how. ?Our enemies cannot do a damn thing. We do not need you at all. But you are in need of the Iranian nation,? he told a crowd in Tehran. Iran has warned that any sanctions against it would send oil prices beyond a level industrialised economies could manage.

Military strike seen as useless

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov yesterday doubted that sanctions would have much effect on Iran. Russia is helping build Iran?s only nuclear power station and Russia?s LUKOIL is investing in an Iranian oilfield. China gets 12 percent of its oil imports from the Islamic Republic.

Abdolrahim Moussavi, head of Iran's joint chiefs of staff, warned that any military strike against Iran?s atomic facilities would be useless. ?We are not seeking a military confrontation, but if that happens we will give the enemy a lesson that will be remembered throughout history,? he was quoted as saying by ISNA students news agency.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told a news conference yesterday that Iran was keeping diplomatic options with Russia open. Asefi said Tehran would have talks with Moscow on Feb. 16, but added that a Russian proposal that Moscow enrich Iran's uranium would have to be ?adjusted in the current situation?. He added the timing of Iran's resumption of a full atomic fuel cycle remained uncertain.

Iranian media yesterday reflected mixed views on the way officials were handling the country's nuclear standoff with the West, with some reformist politicians and newspapers urging the government to tone down its stance. Hardline newspapers, on the other hand, lauded Iran's defiant response to the decision by the board of the United Nations? nuclear watchdog on Saturday to report Iran to the UN Security Council.

?It has become quite obvious that continued commitment to rules that trample upon the rights of nations would only result in capitulation to the bullying demands of foreign powers,? said the conservative Tehran Times.

The nuclear programme enjoys broad support across Iran?s political spectrum. But some politicians expressed concern about how the issue was being handled by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad?s government. ?Reporting Iran's nuclear case to the UN Security Council is not good news and could have negative consequences for the country,? said reformist cleric Mohammad Ali Abtahi, who was a vice-president under former President Mohammad Khatami.

?If the current negotiators cannot carry out their job ... some changes should be made so that the negotiators implement more serious diplomacy for constructive negotiations,? he told semi-official ISNA students news agency.

Lawmaker Mohammad Khoshchehreh said officials should take into account the implications of their nuclear strategy. ?We need strategic management at this stage. We should not make decisions based on emotions and slogans,? he was quoted as saying by the Iran News daily.

Political analyst and university lecturer Ali Khorram, quoted by the same newspaper, said official handling of the issue had led the country into a ?very dangerous phase?. ?I recommend the government rethink this optimistic, confident and almost carefree attitude towards being referred to the Security Council,? he said.

Ultra-conservative daily Kayhan said that, since Tehran?s right to develop peaceful nuclear technology was being ignored, it was time for it to withdraw from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

But Iran News urged the government to proceed with more caution. ?The government should in no way welcome a confrontation with the West,? it said in an editorial. ?The nuclear file is no longer a technical or legal matter but a political problem. The many capabilities of those countries that are standing against Iran should be taken into consideration.?

Parisa HAFEZ