Iran said Tuesday it would reconsider economic ties with countries that voted against it at last week's board meeting of the UN atomic watchdog.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said Teheran was particularly surprised by the vote against it from India, which is seeking to import massive volumes of gas from the Islamic Republic.

"India's vote came as a great surprise to us," he told reporters at a weekly news conference.

"We will reconsider our economic co-operation with those countries that voted against us," he added.

Iran, the world's second biggest holder of natural gas, has signed huge prospective deals to export liquefied natural gas to India and has been pursuing plans to build a pipeline to India overland via Pakistan.

Japan, which also voted against Iran, is pursuing a giant investment project at Azadegan in southwest Iran, hailed as one of the world's largest untapped oilfields.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) last week passed a resolution requiring that Iran be reported in the future to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.

New Delhi and Tokyo were among the 22 out of 35 delegations that voted against Iran.

Washington accuses Iran of seeking nuclear warheads, but Teheran insists it needs atomic fuel for power stations.

Energy-hungry India in June signed a US$22 billion deal to import liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Iran for 25 years from 2009, when Iran's exports of the supercooled fuel are due to hit world markets.

India has also been seeking to pipe gas overland from Iran in a bold US$7 billion project that will cross some of the most rugged and lawless stretches of Pakistan.

Iran is already Japan's number-three oil supplier. But Japan is seeking to increase imports from the Islamic Republic through a US$2 billion development of the giant Azadegan oilfield in Iran's southwestern oil heartlands.

Angered by the IAEA resolution, Teheran has already threatened to resume uranium enrichment - a process which can be used to make bomb-grade material - and curtail short-notice UN inspections.

Analysts had predicted Iran could also roll out the oil weapon in a bid to prompt a change of heart among countries seeking to send Iran to the Security Council.

But such a move could backfire. Oil accounts for 80 per cent of export earnings and interrupting that flow of hard cash would be politically risky.

India had no immediate reaction to Asefi's remarks but its Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran said on Monday New Delhi's stance at the IAEA should not cause much trouble.

"I see no reason why there should be apprehension that there would be any kind of impact on our energy security," he said, adding India had supported Iran by helping to delay an immediate Security Council referral.

Source: China Daily