NEW YORK (Reuters):

Iran rejected a repeated demand by the United Nations Security Council to suspend uranium enrichment work after the 15-nation body imposed arms and financial sanctions on Tehran.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned the West yesterday that his regime would not halt its nuclear programme for "one second".

At the same time, major powers, who drafted the resolution passed on Saturday, immediately offered new talks and renewed their offer of an economic and technological incentive package.

Enrichment of uranium

But the sanctions would stay in place until Iran halts the enrichment of uranium and the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel, which can be used to make a bomb or to generate electricity.

Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told the Security Council it had been abused and manipulated by some of its members to take "unjustifiable action" against a peaceful nuclear programme.

"I can assure you that pressure and intimidation will not change Iranian policy," he said. "Suspension is neither an option nor a solution."

"The world must know - and it does - that even the harshest political and economic sanctions or other threats are far too weak to coerce the Iranian nation to retreat from their legal and legitimate demands," Mottaki said.

Resolution 1747 goes beyond the nuclear sphere by banning Iranian exports of conventional arms and freezing financial assets abroad of 28 individuals and entities, including state-owned Bank Sepah and the commanders of the Revolutionary Guards. Some of those affected are said to be involved in supporting militant movements abroad.