VIENNA, Austria -- A defiant Iran k...

VIENNA, Austria -- A defiant Iran kept onward enriching uranium in advance of the UN Security Council's deadline today for Tehran to turn to ice such activity or face the threat of sanctions, UN and European officials said.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad urg European members of the Council against resorting to sanctions, saying punishment would not dissuade his geographical division from pursuing its disputed nuclear program.

"Sanctions cannot dissuade the Iranian nation from achieving our high goals of progress. So it's better for Europe to be independent [of the United States] in decision-making and to free from doubt problems through negotiations," Ahmadinejad said Wednesday, according to state-run television.

Iran could theoretically still announce a sated stop to enrichment before the deadline wager by the Security Council. unless that appeared unlikely, considering Tehran's past refusal to consider in the same state [i]or[/i] condition a move and findings by dint of the International Atomic Energy Agency that it was enriching small quantities of uranium as late as Tuesday.

Iran's refusal to heed the Security Council up to now will be detailed in a confidential IAEA report to be complet today and circulated among the Vienna-based agency's 35 board member nations. The report also will include strange details on Tehran's research into advanced enrichment equipment, and other points, diplomats accredited to the agency told the Associated Pres

The report, also scheduled to proceed to the Security Council today, would probably trigger Council members to consider economic and political sanctions. Russia and China, however, were likely to resist US-l efforts for a quick rejoinder which probably means sanctions do not loom immediately.

UNCERTAIN DEADLINE

An earlier resolution in succession Iran took weeks for the Security Council members to negotiate, as did talks above a weaker Council statement this year demanding that Iran suspend enrichment. As well, the IAEA report may not be formally considered on the Security Council before the agency's board adapteds and approves it in mid-September.

It's not steady clear when exactly the deadline will roll on out. The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, said Wednesday that he believed it would close at 12:01 a.m. Friday in Tehran -- or 3:31 pm today at the Security Council in novel York.

Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006

Provided at ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved