Iran has threatened with tough response if the European Union (EU) denies the country's legal right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes in its proposed solution to the dispute over Iran's nuclear program.

"If the Europeans put forward an unacceptable proposal, we will act quickly and take necessary measures," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi said at his weekly press conference on Monday.

The nuclear talks between Iran and three EU powers Britain, France and Germany, which started soon after Iran froze uranium enrichment last November, reached a deadlock due to the unyielding stances of the two sides.

The EU promised in late May to offer Tehran a comprehensive package of economic and political incentives in two months to persuade Iran to abandon enrichment-related activities.

However, Iran's hardline President-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is due to be sworn in on August 4, has said Tehran will never give up its legal right to enrich uranium as part of a program it insists is exclusively intended to produce fuel for nuclear power plant, but which the West suspects is aimed at developing nuclear weapons.

The so-called EU trio have agreed to back the US demand to refer Iran to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions if it resumes enrichment activities.

Meanwhile, Iran's former president and incumbent Chairman of Expediency Council Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani warned the future of Iran-EU relations would be at stake if Iran's legitimate concern was not taken into consideration.

"Prospect of Iran-EU relations depends on appropriate settlement of nuclear issue. Iran's nuclear program has turned into a major issue for the future of relations between the two parties," Rafsanjani said in a meeting with Portuguese Ambassador to Iran Jose Manuel da Costa Arsenio.

"We expect EU to deal with Iranian nuclear program realistically and in line with international conventions," Rafsanjani said.

One day before the harsh warnings given by Asefi and Rafsanjani, Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi explicitly urged the EU to respect Iran's legal right to continue uranium enrichment, otherwise Tehran would take its "own decision".

Kharrazi, however, said that "the details of the EU proposal have not been disclosed yet" and Iranian officials are in contact with the Europeans.

The official IRNA news agency quoted EU diplomatic sources as saying on Monday that the EU package would made a "generous and significant" offer to Iran.

"It is a very generous, significant and important offer. The package is under discussion and preparation," said the sources in Brussels.

"The EU will help and support Iran's nuclear program if the Islamic Republic gives objective guarantees that its nuclear program is for civilian purposes," the sources added.

Source: Xinhua