Iran's flinty President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed yesterday that his country would not give into injustice and oppression from the western powers, the state television reported.

"They want to deprive the rights of the Iranian nation, but we won't give in to any injustice and oppression," Ahmadinejad said in a televised speech in northwestern Iran.

"We obtained the nuclear technology by ourselves without any assistance from anyone, if they want to take the legal rights away from us, we will stamp disgrace on them," said the president.

"Iran wants peace and security, and is not a threat to anyone, we are ready to hold talks with western countries so that they can eliminate their suspicions," he added.

The hardline president made the remarks just one day before the United Nations Security Council's nuclear deadline, which demanded Iran to freeze all uranium-related activities.

Based on a Feb. 4 resolution, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on March 8 handed over the Iranian nuclear issue to the UN Security Council.

After weeks of heated bargains, the 15-member Security Council on March 29 approved a non-binding presidential statement, asking Iran to suspend uranium enrichment activities in 30 days and demanding the UN nuclear watchdog to report on Tehran's compliance. Mohamed ElBaradei, chief of the IAEA, is expected to submit the report to the Security Council in the coming days.

With the deadline looming, President Ahmadinejad said on Monday that he believed sanctions were unlikely, vowing to press ahead with the nuclear program.

He also warned that Tehran would "reconsider" its cooperation with the IAEA, hinting a possible withdrawal from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, if western countries continued to prevent Iran from obtaining peaceful nuclear technologies.

Earlier this month, Iran officially declared that it had gained ticket to joining the global nuclear club by having produced 3.5 percent enriched uranium, a technological leap in the process for nuclear power plant construction, which immediately aroused strong international concern.

The United States has accused Iran of secretly developing nuclear weapons under a civilian front, but Iran dismissed the charge, saying that its nuclear program is fully peaceful.