IRAN yesterday said it would refuse to discuss a newly declared nuclear plant at forthcoming international talks and cautioned Western powers it could curb co-operation further if they repeated “past mistakes”.

THE UN Security Council, at a summit chaired by US President Barack Obama, unanimously approved a resolution yesterday calling on nuclear weapons states to scrap their arsenals.

The UN Security Council unanimously approved a resolution aimed at ridding the world of nuclear weapons today.

Ireland has an excellent track record in the global effort to rid the world of nuclear weapons, former UN chief weapons inspector Dr Hans Blix said tonight.

Iran today promised to formally respond on August 22 to a Western package of incentives aimed at resolving the stand-off over its suspect nuclear programme.

IRAN’S president declared in a letter to US President George W Bush that democracy had failed worldwide and lamented “an ever-increasing global hatred” of Washington.

Iran has renewed its threats to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, with its president dismissing sanctions as “meaningless” and parliament seeking to end unannounced nuclear inspections.

The Iranian parliament today threatened to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty if the US continued pressuring Tehran to suspend uranium enrichment.

Iran’s foreign minister today condemned what he called “unjustified propaganda” about his country's nuclear programme, and said he could not envisage reaching an agreement with Western countries that fear Tehran is seeking nuclear weapons.

North Korea reconfirmed today that it has nuclear weapons and demanded the United States give it “nuclear cooperation” instead of seeking to disarm it.

Iran has increased the brinkmanship over its disputed nuclear programme, abruptly postponing talks with Moscow on a plan to enrich Tehran’s uranium on Russian territory to allay fears it is building an atomic weapon.

IRAN will carry through its threat to end tough UN nuclear inspections and resume ultra-sensitive uranium enrichment on an industrial scale, if it is hauled before the UN Security Council, a national security spokesman told AFP.

Iran plans to construct two more nuclear power plants despite international concern over its atomic programme, a top official said today.

Negotiators at talks aimed at persuading North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions set to work today on the contentious details of how the North will disarm and what it will get in exchange.

Iran, under heavy US-led pressure to curb its nuclear programme, has opened a high-security military site to UN nuclear inspectors who also met senior personnel at the facility, an Iranian official said today.

Iran today insisted the resumption of its uranium enrichment programme is not on its agenda – but warned that it may change its mind if the International Atomic Energy Agency refers Iran to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.

Iran’s president proclaimed his country’s “inalienable right” to nuclear energy and offered foreign countries and companies a role in his nation’s uranium enrichment programme to prove Tehran is not producing nuclear weapons.

With the world watching its every nuclear step, Iran today declared it is “determined” to pursue all legal areas of nuclear technology, including uranium enrichment.

AT A time of growing nuclear tensions in the world, UN secretary general Kofi Annan yesterday urged non-weapons states like Iran to step back from the nuclear temptation.

Irish e-learning company Ossidian has sold an enterprise licence for its telecoms eLearning library to the Norwegian Post and Telecommunications Authority (NPT).

IRAN insisted yesterday it was providing full disclosure on its atomic programme to the UN nuclear watchdog, saying it was abiding by agreements in force.

IRAN’S foreign ministry said on Sunday that Tehran would not give up its nuclear program, including uranium enrichment, despite international pressure to prove it is not developing atomic weapons.

South Korea told its communist neighbour yesterday that it must do more than say it has no plans to develop atomic arms if it was to end the crisis on the peninsula.

WITH mounting fears of a nuclear-armed North Korea, a US envoy arrived in Seoul yesterday to try to defuse the crisis amid warnings from Russia that too much pressure on the communist state could backfire.

North Korea withdrew from the global nuclear arms control treaty today but insisted it had no plans to develop nuclear weapons “at this stage.”