Feb. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad pledged to maintain his country's nuclear work ahead of the expiry of a United Nations deadline for the Islamic Republic to halt its program.

Accessing nuclear energy is ``very important for the progress and honor of the country,'' the Iranian president told supporters today at a rally in the northern Gilan province, the official Islamic Students News Agency reported.

``If we shut down other activities for 10 years and the country only focuses on nuclear energy it will be worth it because if we obtain this energy our people will advance as much as 50 years,'' Ahmadinejad, pronounced ah-ma-deen-ah-ZHAD, said.

After months of negotiations, the UN Security Council unanimously voted Dec. 23 to impose sanctions on Iran over its atomic program, including a ban on the acquisition of materials and technology that might be used to build nuclear weapons. The UN also froze the assets of individuals and groups associated with the program and gave Iran 60 days to halt uranium enrichment, the process by which the element can be made into a form usable in a reactor or a bomb.

The council's five permanent members -- the U.S., U.K., Russia, China and France -- plus Germany required that Iran suspend enrichment as a condition of further negotiations. The resolution calls for tougher sanctions if today's deadline isn't met.

``I want to emphasize again that the best course would be for Iran to suspend its enrichment and reprocessing activities so that we can return to negotiations,'' U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told a press conference in Berlin today.

IAEA Report

The UN nuclear organization, the International Atomic Energy Agency, is scheduled to report to the Security Council by the end of this week on whether Iran is complying with demands to stop producing nuclear fuel.

The IAEA report, if it confirms that Iran hasn't suspended its nuclear activities, will prompt discussions at the Security Council on a new resolution, said Mohammad-Reza Djalili, an international relations professor at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva.

``There will be haggling between the Western countries on one side, and Russia and China on the other, regarding the nature of the sanctions,'' Djalili said today in a telephone interview from Geneva.

Diplomats from China, which has oil companies engaged in energy projects with Iran, and Russia, which is building Iran's first nuclear reactor at the southern port city of Bushehr, have said they favor negotiations aimed at persuading the country to halt enrichment work, rather than sanctions.

Stonewalling Investigation

Iran is limiting enrichment in a signal to the U.S. and its European allies that the Islamic Republic wants to avoid escalating the dispute, two Western diplomats said last week.

The 328 centrifuges Iran uses to enrich uranium are now running only intermittently instead of at full capacity, according to the diplomats, who have direct knowledge of the IAEA's Iran dossier. The diplomats requested anonymity because they aren't authorized to speak publicly about the investigation.

The IAEA's report will state that the Iranians have produced a few grams of low-enriched uranium, too little to have any technical or military value, the diplomats said. The IAEA will say that Iran continues to stonewall investigators and has taken the first steps toward installing new equipment at an underground, large-scale enrichment plant in Natanz, where the centrifuges are located.

It may ``possibly take several weeks'' to achieve unanimous backing for further sanctions at the Security Council, Djalili said. Russia and China's support for the Dec 23. resolution suggests that their eventual backing for further sanctions is ``guaranteed,'' he added.

Bushehr Reactor

Russia announced Feb. 19 that the Bushehr reactor won't start as expected this year due to Iran's failure to supply cooling systems and other components and to make contractual payments. Iran rejected the claims.

The Security Council may apply an economic stranglehold on Iran through ``financial and banking sanctions'' Djalili said. ``Iran will have difficulties accessing its oil revenue paid in foreign currencies.''

Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, yesterday urged the U.S. and its European allies to return to talks on the atomic issue. The envoy told reporters he had a ``good, constructive'' meeting about his country's program in Vienna with IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei. Still, Larijani called a suspension of enrichment a ``political decision, not a technical, professional approach.''

Bomb Suspicions

The U.S., which suspects Iran is trying to build an atomic bomb, has been the most active in pushing for sanctions. The Bush administration has also accused elements in Iran's military forces of meddling in neighboring Iraq. The Iranian government denies wanting to build a weapon, and says the country's program is intended to fuel power stations.

On Feb. 15, a U.S. aircraft carrier battle group led by the USS John C. Stennis arrived in the Persian Gulf region. The move is part of a buildup of U.S. forces in the area amid heightened tension with Iran.

The nuclear-powered Stennis joins the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower as the second aircraft carrier battle group in the region. U.S. President George W. Bush ordered its deployment last month.

To contact the reporters on this story: Marc Wolfensberger in Tehran at mwolfens@bloomberg.net; Ladane Nasseri in Tehran at lnasseri@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: February 21, 2007 10:53 EST