Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday that France's stance on the Iranian nuclear program had become a stumbling block to the development of bilateral cooperation.

"France has not adopted an appropriate policy toward the Iranian nuclear program," Ahmadinejad was quoted by the official IRNA news agency as saying in a meeting with French Ambassador to Iran Bernard Politte.

"The Iranian nation expects the French government to make good on the damage inflicted on Tehran-Paris relations in connection with the nuclear standoff," Ahmadinejad stressed.

The president said that Iran "does not want nuclear arms and does not need it either", adding that Iran calls for annihilation of all nuclear arms and weapons of mass destruction.

France, Britain and Germany, on behalf of the European Union, have been negotiating with Tehran on its controversial nuclear program.

The EU trio have offered Iran economic and technical incentives in return for Tehran's abandonment of work on nuclear fuel cycle to guarantee that the country's nuclear research will not be used for military purposes.

Iran, which said it would never give up its legal right to peaceful nuclear technology, rejected the proposal and resumed uranium conversion activities in early August, prompting the EU to suspend the nuclear talks and join the US call for referring Iran's case to the UN Security Council.

The board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency adopted a EU-drafted resolution on Sept. 24, accusing Iran of violating international nuclear safeguards and asking Iran to resume suspension of all nuclear activities and return to negotiating table.

The US has charged Iran with seeking nuclear weapons under the disguise of a civilian nuclear program, but Iran denies the charge.

Source: Xinhua