Iran not to retreat on nuclear issue: president

TEHRAN, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday that the Islamic republic will not retreat on its nuclear issue.

There is nobody in Iran who wants to retreat from the country's nuclear rights, said Ahmadinejad when addressing reporters in a press conference.

However, Ahmadinejad said that if Iran receives 20-percent enriched uranium, there is "no need" to produce it by itself.

Asked by a Xinhua reporter about Iran's earlier announcement that the Islamic republic may consider giving up the production of 20-percent enriched uranium, Ahmadinejad said Iran had demanded other countries provide it with 20-percent enriched uranium as the fuel for medicine production, and had said it was ready to exchange 3.5-percent enriched uranium for the 20-percent one.

However, "so far there has been nobody to provide the fuel," he said.

The production of 20-percent enriched uranium as fuel is " costly," he said, adding that "anytime they provide the fuel for us, we do not need (to produce) the costly fuel."

An Iranian lawmaker said Tuesday that the Islamic republic will enrich uranium up to a purity of 60 percent if negotiations with major world powers prove ineffective, Press TV reported.

"In case our talks with the P5+1 group -- including the U.S., the UK, France, China, Russia and Germany -- fail to pay off, Iranian youth will master enrichment (of uranium) up to 60-percent purity to fuel submarines and ocean-going ships," Mansour Haqiqatpour, deputy head of Iran's Majlis (parliament) Foreign Policy and National Security Commission, was quoted as saying.

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