"Iran and any other Islamic state has the right to own nuclear energy to use for peaceful purposes," Saba quoted Saleh as saying in talks with visiting Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki in Sanaa.

On Thursday, Iran again rejected an end-of-the-month UN Security Council deadline to suspend sensitive nuclear fuel work, saying it would not accept "illegal international obligations".

The Security Council has given Iran until August 31 to halt uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities or face possible sanctions.

The resolution was passed after Tehran ignored a previous non-binding deadline and failed to respond to an international offer of incentives in exchange for a moratorium on nuclear fuel work.

Iran has repeatedly insisted its nuclear programme is for civil purposes only, despite Western concerns that it may be a cover for developing nuclear weapons.

Mottaki also delivered a letter from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Saleh on "developments in the region, mainly the Israeli aggression on the Palestinian and Lebanese peoples", Saba said.

Iran slammed Friday's unanimous UN Security Council resolution aimed at ending the month-long conflict between Israel and Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah as biased and serving only interests of the Jewish state.

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