Iran on Monday ruled out possibility of opening talks with Washington during US President George W. Bush's second term as there would be no major change in US policy toward Tehran, the official IRNA news agency reported.

"Given that the US government has started its new term with threats, it is clear that no major change has occurred in the Americans' policy," government spokesman Abdollah Ramezanzadeh was quoted as saying.

Ramezanzadeh rejected senior US officials' recent remarks against Iran, which had aroused wide suspicion that Washington would launch military attacks on the Islamic Republic.

"We will use the same language if anyone chooses to use a language of force and threats against us. But if they opt to engage in dialogue without any precondition on an equal footing, we will consider that," Ramezanzadeh said.

Bush said on Jan. 17 that he would not rule out military actions against Iran. Secretary of State-designate Condoleezza Rice, one day later, urged the world to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons and threatened to refer Tehran's nuclear case to the UN Security Council.

At the inauguration ceremony of Bush's second term on Thursday, Vice President Dick Cheney ranked Iran at top of a list of global trouble spots.

Ramezanzadeh played down the comments, saying "it is now 26 years that we have got used to the US threats." "Neither is the US in a position to have the capacity to attack us, nor are we in a position in which anyone would dare to attack us," he added.

On Sunday, Iran warned any attack on its soil would be a "major strategic blunder" and insisted that its nuclear activities are strictly peaceful.

At a routine news briefing, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi noted that US officials' comments were aimed at pressurizing the European Union (EU) to follow the US policy on the Iranian nuclear issue and were motivated by a desire to launch religious and cultural wars.

The United States, which has severed diplomatic relations with Tehran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, has been accusing Iran of secretly developing nuclear weapons and has threatened to launch preemptive attacks on Iran's nuclear facilities.

"The US actually likes to see Europe fail in its talks with Iran. Militarism is the main reason behind the comments," Asefi said, referring to the ongoing negotiations between the EU and Tehran on the nuclear issue and trade cooperation.

"The negotiations between the two sides are going favorably," Asefi went on.

The European Union's "big three" -- Britain, France and Germany -- have been trying to get Iran's promise not to produce nuclear weapons in exchange for trade and a legitimate right for peaceful nuclear projects.

Iran has agreed to suspend its work on the sensitive nuclear fuel cycle -- a process that can be geared to both civil and military purposes -- for the duration of the talks with the EU.

On Monday, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder spoke out against the use of force against Iran over its nuclear program.

The talks between the EU and Iran aim to prevent the country from getting nuclear weapons and "we are of the opinion that this must be pursued with diplomatic, not military, means," Schroeder told a press conference after meeting with visiting Chilean President Ricardo Lagos.

Schroeder, a staunch opponent of the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, also repeated his call for Washington to step up its efforts to help resolve the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.