"Today the United States is in a very weak position and it is not in a condition to impose another war on the American taxpayers," Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said during a meeting with a visiting Syrian foreign ministry official.

"US pressures have made the people of the region become firmer in defending their independence," he added.

Mottaki repeated Iran's position that its nuclear activity is "peaceful and under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Organization."

Washington accuses Tehran of seeking nuclear weapons, a charge fiercely denied by Tehran, which insists its nuclear program is solely aimed at providing civilian energy.

Iran has defied Western demands to suspend uranium enrichment, a process that can be used to make nuclear fuel and, in highly extended form, the core of an atomic bomb.

Iran's rejection of an August 31 UN deadline to halt enrichment has left Tehran facing a push by the United States for the Security Council to impose sanctions.

On Sunday, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, on a visit to Tehran, said Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told him that Iran did not accept a suspension of uranium enrichment before negotiations.

However he added that Ahmadinejad went on to say that Iran was prepared to negotiate and find a way out of this crisis.

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