Iraq considers negotiations
 

Iran will not abandon its nuclear goals under Western pressure, according to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, adding that the Islamic republic will hold "fair and unconditional" talks with West.

His statements, delivered Saturday to thousands gathered at the shrine of the late Ayatollah Khomeini, echoed those reported Friday by the Islamic Republic News Agency.

The West announced this week that it would offer Iran a "substantive" incentives package to abandon its nuclear enrichment program and come back to the negotiating table. But on Saturday, Ahmadinejad repeated that Iran won't compromise on its right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes, the news agency said.

Despite Iran's insistence that its nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes, the United States and its European allies suspect the nation is developing nuclear weapons.

Iran will announce its views on the incentives package after it has been studied, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said.

"Nuclear weapons have no place in Iran's military and defense doctrine," he said, adding that "nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction are obstacles to international peace and security."

Ahmadinejad on Friday, 24 hours after the package was announced, told the Organization of the Islamic Conference in Tehran, "Certain parties that have stockpiles full of nuclear arms want to deprive us of our absolute rights," according to IRNA.