Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a seminar in Tehran yesterday that Iran would "not back down" on its nuclear rights and suspend nuclear enrichment, Iran's official IRNA news agency reported.

"They want to use suspension (as a measure) for propaganda, then tell the whole world that Iran was forced by them to accept suspension," the president was quoted as saying.

"They are making a mistake and the Iranian nation will not backdown on its rights," he asserted.

"In their negotiations with us, they wanted us to halt uranium enrichment even for one day under the quillet of technical problem, then we can have more talks with them, but we responded to them that nobody can give up the nation's rights and the Iranian nation will not back down on its rights," he further elaborated.

Ahmadinejad made the comments while Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani was meeting with European Union (EU) foreign policy chief Javier Solana.

The last round of talks between the two top officials took place at the Austrian Chancellor's Palace in Vienna on Sept. 9. Both of them considered the previous talk as constructive.

The U.S. daily Washington Times reported on Tuesday that Iran was close to agreeing on a secret deal to suspend its enrichment activities for 90 days, in order for more talks with European countries.

But Mohammad Saeedi, Iran's Atomic Energy Organization deputy head, said Wednesday that Larijani would not discuss the suspension of the country's uranium enrichment work in the new round of talk with Javier Solana.

"Such news is utterly baseless and without foundation," said Saeedi, adding that "this kind of reports could create a false propaganda atmosphere which will not help solve the issue".

At an informal meeting in Brussels earlier this month, EU foreign ministers decided to maintain serious talks with Tehran in efforts to solve Iran's nuclear issue through diplomacy after Iran failed to meet a UN Security Council resolution calling for Tehran to halt uranium enrichment by Aug. 31.

However, the United States since then has unceasingly been pushing for sanctions against Iran.

"Iran needs to suspend its uranium enrichment activities, and it needs to do so in a verifiable way. If it does, we can start negotiations. If it doesn't, we move to sanctions. It is a clear and unambiguous standard," State Department spokesman Tom Casey told the Washington Times recently.