Ahmadinejad told cheering supporters in a speech in Sari, the capital of the northern Mazandaran province, that Europe was seeking to thwart Iran's nuclear programme and not just ensure that it was peaceful.

"If you (Europeans) continue making efforts to halt the progress of the Iranian nuclear programme and if you take any step against the Iranian nation's rights, either in propaganda or international bodies, the Islamic republic will consider this an act of hostility.

"And if you continue with this, the Iranian nation will revise the direction of its path and its plans related to you," he added in the speech broadcast on state television.

The speech came as high ranking diplomats from six world powers were to meet in Paris Tuesday to try and break weeks of deadlock over what UN sanctions should be imposed on Iran for its failure to halt sensitive nuclear work.

Iran has defiantly refused to suspend its uranium enrichment work, a process that the West fears could be diverted to make nuclear weapons. Iran insists its nuclear programme is solely aimed at generating energy.

Ahmadinejad said his warning were directed at "two or three" European countries, a reference to Germany and permanent UN Security Council members Britain and France who have led efforts to find a negotiated solution to the standoff.

His defiance over the adoption of any UN Security Council resolution against Iran was echoed by the top Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani, who said such a move would be pointless.

"If this resolution has the aim of stopping the Iranian nuclear programme as its goal, this will serve nothing," Larijani said during a press conference in Dubai.

"Rest assured that Iran will not give into pressures and will not surrender its inalienable right" to its nuclear programme," he added.

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