VIENNA, Austria (AP) - Iran warned the United States on Wednesday it would feel the "pain" if tough measures were imposed against the Islamic republic for its nuclear program by the U.N. Security Council. International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei also said the United States should negotiate directly with Iran if talks reach the stage of focusing on security guarantees to Tehran in exchange for concessions on its nuclear program.
The end of Wednesday's meeting of the 35-member board of the International Atomic Energy Agency set the path for Security Council action. ElBaradei said his staff would send his report on Iran's nuclear program to the council by Thursday.
Under terms agreed to by the five permanent Security Council members, that would formally lead to the start of council deliberations. Those are meant to cajole Iran into cooperating with an IAEA probe seeking to banish fears Tehran may be seeking nuclear arms and persuade it to reimpose a freeze on uranium enrichment.
That process can produce both nuclear fuel and the fissile core of warheads.
The United States and its European allies said Iran's nuclear intransigence left the world no choice. The Security Council could impose economic and political sanctions on Iran, but such a move is considered unlikely because of opposition from Russia and China, which have strategic and commercial ties with Tehran and wield veto power in the U.N. body.
While the United States hopes for at least a binding Security Council resolution calling on Iran to comply, it might have to settle for a milder statement.
Wednesday's meeting began with both Iran and the nations opposing its enrichment plans sticking to their positions.
"The United States has the power to cause harm and pain," said Ali Asghar Soltanieh, a senior Iranian delegate to the IAEA. "But the United States is also susceptible to harm and pain. So if that is the path that the U.S. wishes to choose, let the ball roll."
He did not elaborate but suggested Iran was awaiting additional American moves.
Diplomats accredited to the meeting and in contact with the Iranians said the statement could be a veiled threat to use oil as an economic weapon. Iran is the second-largest producer within the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, and a boycott could target Europe, China or India.
The White House dismissed the rhetoric out of Tehran.
"I think that provocative statements and actions only further isolate Iran from the rest of the world," White House press secretary Scott McClellan told reporters traveling with President Bush to the Gulf Coast. "And the international community has spelled out to Iran what it needs to do."
John Bolton, America's ambassador to the United Nations, said Iran's comments showed how much of a menace it was.
"Their threats show why leaving a country like that with a nuclear weapon is so dangerous," he told The Associated Press in a phone call from Washington.
Bolton classified the Iranian comments as "reflecting their determination to acquire weapons."
At an OPEC meeting in Vienna, Iran petroleum minister Sayed Kazem Vaziri Hamaneh deflected questions about Iran's threat, saying: "Ask the one who said that."
He later sought to ease worries, telling reporters: "So far there's no reason to reduce exports. Iran has no intention whatsoever of reducing its oil exports."
Oil supplies are tight worldwide and prices already are high. Although the United States does not buy oil directly from Iran, any Iranian effort to tighten world supplies would effect oil prices in the United States.
Iran also has leverage with extremists in Iraq, the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and the Islamic militant group Hamas, which won Palestinian elections in January. Both groups are classified by the U.S. State Department as terrorist organizations.
On Tuesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld accused Iran of dispatching elements of its Revolutionary Guard to stir trouble inside Iraq. Vice President Dick Cheney also indicated that Washington would do its utmost to use the Security Council to pressure Iran to compromise.
"The Iranian regime needs to know that if it stays on its present course, the international community is prepared to impose meaningful consequences," Cheney said in a Tuesday speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Washington.
Tehran maintains its nuclear program is for generating electricity.
"Our nation has made its decision to fully use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes and all have to give in to this decision made by the Iranian nation," Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in Iran.
Iran also attacked "warmongers in Washington" for what it said was an unjust accusation its nuclear intentions were mainly for military use. It also suggested America was vulnerable, despite its strength.
"Surely we are not naive about the United States' ... intention to flex muscles," the statement said. "But we also see the bone fractures underneath."
Earlier, U.S. delegate Gregory Schulte said "the time has now come for the Security Council to act." He said the 85 tons of feedstock uranium gas already produced by Iran could produce enough material for about 10 nuclear weapons if enriched.
Schulte highlighted Tehran's possession of plans that could only be used to make nuclear warheads, links between its nuclear programs and the military, and its determination to develop a large-scale enrichment program that could be misused to make nuclear arms.
"IAEA inspectors have no doubt this information was expressly intended for the fabrication of nuclear weapons components," Schulte said of documents showing how to form fissile material into warheads.
Separately, France, Germany and Britain, which spearheaded the Feb. 4 IAEA resolution clearing the path for Security Council action, warned that what is known about Iran's enrichment program could represent only "the tip of the iceberg."
"We believe that the time has ... come for the U.N. Security Council to reinforce the authority" of the IAEA, the European statement said.
At U.N. headquarters in New York, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov suggested that Moscow would oppose sanctions on Iran because such measures rarely work.
"I don't think sanctions as a means to solve a crisis have ever achieved a goal in the recent history, so ... we must rely on the professional advice of the IAEA, the watchdog of the nonproliferation regime," Lavrov said.
Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing appealed Tuesday for more negotiations and suggested Security Council involvement was not needed.
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Associated Press reporters Nick Wadhams at the United Nations and Palma Benczenleitner contributed to this report.
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On the Net:
International Atomic Energy Agency, http://www.iaea.org
