Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi warned yesterday that the referral of the nuclear issue back to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) could derail any possible future negotiations and would block the path of dialogue.

"If the issue is returned to the UN Security Council, the future negotiations will be derailed, obviously the Security Council is not a constructive track," Asefi told reporters at his weekly press conference.

Meanwhile, the spokesman said his country was expecting support from China and Russia on the nuclear issue.

"We hope China and Russia could defend our legal rights, safeguarding Iran's legal rights also means defending the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and other international treaties," said Asefi.

The spokesman said the six-nation package presented to Iran on June 6 by EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana was an "acceptable basis" for negotiations in the future, urging the ongoing Group of Eight (G8) summit in Russia to select dialogue with Iran to resolve the current deadlock.

"We can achieve acceptable results in dialogue, it's a right path. The path of extremism and threats is useless and it doesn't work and is not acceptable," stressed Asefi.

"The G8 now has two choices: one is the path of logic and the other one is extremism. We hope the G8 group will place logical recommendations on its agenda," he added.

The Iranian nuclear issue was referred back to the UNSC on Wednesday after it failed to respond quickly enough to the six-nation proposal calling for Tehran to halt uranium enrichment in return for economic and diplomatic incentives.

The move drew a strong reaction from the Iranian government. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned on Thursday that his country would revise cooperation with the IAEA and may quit the NPT if the West is not sincere on the nuclear issue.