Ambassador Seyed Mohammed Hossein Adeli also rejected accusations made on Friday by a top US official that Tehran had been trying to develop nuclear weapons for 18 years and might be intending to supply them to terrorists.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair and other senior officials say there is evidence that a series of deadly attacks on troops in southern Iraq lead back to Iran and the militant group Hezbollah.

But Adeli insisted: "There is no connection either direct or indirect to terrorist attacks on British soldiers in Iraq."

Speaking at an anti-nuclear weapons conference in London, he said the only possible link between Iran and the bombings was that insurgents had used explosives left behind from the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.

The Islamic republic has consistently denied interfering in Iraq, and blames the presence of foreign troops for the ongoing violence.

In a warning to Britain, the Iranian envoy told the annual Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament meeting that he did not want this diplomatic dispute to affect negotiations over his country's development of nuclear technology.

"We do not expect the British to use Iraq to put pressure on Iran during nuclear negotiations," he said.

Blair -- when raising suspicions about Iran's possible links to the insurgency in Iraq last week -- told Tehran that London would not be subjected to intimidation when querying the country's alleged nuclear weapons ambitions.

Turning to the allegations made by John Bolton, the US ambassador to the United Nations, about Iran's nuclear activities, Adeli said they were false.

"We have had a nuclear power programme for 18 years but have never made any kind of nuclear weapon," he said.

In a strong defence of Iran's nuclear programme, the ambassador said it was subjected to "controversy full of mis-statements and false allegations".

He said the country needed nuclear power because its oil supplies were being depleted and future growth depended on having a sustainable energy supply.

One of Washington's arguments against Tehran using nuclear technology is that the oil-rich state has no need for a civilian nuclear programme.

Adeli said Iran had never broken any international law in its nuclear activities and was being prevented its right to develop a nuclear power supply.

He added that the government was willing to re-enter negotiations about the matter with the European Union without any pre-conditions.

Tehran froze atomic fuel cycle work two years ago as a confidence-building measure amid talks with the European Union on guaranteeing that it was not secretly developing nuclear weapons. It resumed conversion work in August but held off from actual enrichment.

In a minor disruption, several people were told to leave the conference room while Adeli was speaking following protests at Iran's human rights record.

A handful of demonstrators shouted: "Fascists", at the ambassador and the organisers of the two-day event, which was attended by about 200 delegates and is due to end on Sunday.

All rights reserved. © 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.