"It is wrong to say that Iran has violated its commitments, and Tehran will certainly not accept this," Kharazi was quoted as saying by the official news agency IRNA.

"It is also an error to compare Iran to Libya, because Libya officially declared it was seeking nuclear weapons, which constitues a violation of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)," he asserted.

The warning came as the executive board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was locked in talks in Vienna on how best to keep up the pressure on Iran over its suspect quest to generate nuclear energy.

"Iran is not seeking atomic weapons and has not violated the NPT," Kharazi argued.

"There have been very close negotiations with the IAEA and, having collected and examined all the evidence, the agency will come to the conclusion that everything to do with Iran's nuclear programme is peaceful and transparent," he insisted.

He was reacting to comments Monday by IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei, who told reporters that both Iran and Libya "have been in breach of their obligations under the safeguards agreement" of the NPT.

"In view of many years of violation of non-proliferation obligations by Libya and Iran, I am asking for the provision of information and a full measure of transparency," the IAEA director said.

ElBaradei also told the 35-nation IAEA board he was "seriously concerned that Iran's October declaration did not include any reference to its possession of P-2 centrifuge designs (for making enriched uranium that could be weapons-grade) and related RD (research and development) which in my view was a setback to Iran's stated policy of transparency."

He said "this was particularly the case" since an October declaration from Tehran was trumpeted by the regime as providing "the full scope of Iranian nuclear activities" including "a complete centrifuge R and D chronology."

But Kharazi said the IAEA chief was merely referring to "failures, which are very different to violations."

"Most of these failures are in the past and are being corrected," the Iranian foreign minister said.

There was also an angry reaction from Seyed Hossein Moussavian, a close aide to Iran's top national security official and nuclear negotiator, Hassan Rowhani.

"For several years, Iran has been fully cooperating with the agency, so we do not expect these kind of statements from Mr. ElBaradei," he said, adding that Tehran hoped the IAEA chief's "serious error" would be "corrected".

The United States is trying to get the IAEA board to adopt a tough resolution condemning the Iranians for hiding sensitive technology and insisting on a "trigger mechanism" for the matter to go before the UN Security Council, which could impose sanctions, if more violations are discovered.

But Europeans and other countries, led by Britain, France and Germany, resist this as they want to encourage Iran's cooperation with the IAEA.

The so-called Euro 3 struck an agreement in October for Iran to cooperate with the IAEA and advocate a tactic of "constructive engagement" with Iran.

WAR.WIRE