Iran won't dismantle nuke program
Uranium enrichment suspended
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BEIJING, China (CNN) -- Iran and the U.S. appear on a collision course over Tehran's nuclear program with Iran saying Wednesday it would never fully dismantle its capabilities.
"Definitely, Iran will never be prepared for dismantling," Iran's chief delegate to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) told a media conference in Beijing.
"This is out of the question and out of negotiation," Hossein Mousavian said according to news wire reports.
The Bush administration believes Tehran is attempting to build a nuclear weapon, and while it welcomes this week's earlier commitment to suspend uranium enrichment, it says it needs "proof" of Iran's intentions.
Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi told CNN Monday his country had stopped enriching uranium for three months as part of a deal with European countries.
Kharrazi said Iran had not yet produced any enriched uranium -- a key process in the production of a nuclear weapon -- or purchased uranium from other countries.
Iran insists its nuclear program is designed for the peaceful generation of energy, not to produce nuclear weapons.
Mousavian said Wednesday the U.S. "had no right" to suggest Iran was building a nuclear weapon.
France, Britain and Germany have now circulated a draft resolution to the United Nations on Iran's program that calls on the IAEA to monitor Iran's pledge not to enrich uranium, but the U.S. considers this to be too weak.
Washington wants an "automatic trigger" in the resolution which would see Iran referred to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions if Tehran resumed the uranium enrichment processes.
The draft is to be submitted to the board of governors of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, in Vienna on Thursday, where Mousavian was headed from Beijing, Reuters reports.
U.S. and Western diplomats earlier charged that in anticipation of the freeze, Iran has produced massive quantities of uranium hexaflouride -- a precursor to the enriched uranium used in both nuclear weapons and nuclear power plants.
Speaking on a visit to Colombia on Tuesday, U.S. President George W. Bush said Iran must "earn the trust" of countries concerned over its nuclear plans.
Bush said he hoped Iran's assurance that it has frozen its uranium enrichment work was true.
"Let's say I hope it's true," Bush said. "And I think the definition of truth is the willingness for the Iranian regime to allow for verification."
Bush said other countries besides the United States "understand the dangers of the Iranian government having a nuclear weapon."
Foreign Minister Kharrazi said his country had concerns about the threat of a pre-emptive strike by the U.S. against its nuclear facilities.
But he said the United States should not take action without reliable intelligence -- a reference to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, which Bush administration officials accused of reviving its nuclear weapons program.
No weapons program was found after the invasion.
"There are some concerns but the question is what happens if there were to be such a pre-emptive action," Kharrazi said.
"I don't think it helps anyone, but it creates more crisis and more problems and we have enough problems in the world."
CNN's Christiane Amanpour contributed to this report.
