Iranian President Mohammad Khatami on Saturday stressed that Iran will never give up its legitimate rights but will restrict nuclear research into civil use, the official IRNA news agency reported.

"In view of the ongoing progress in the world today, Iran is entitled to peaceful use of nuclear technology," Khatami was quoted as saying in a meeting with Mohammad-Mehdi Akhundzadeh, Iran's ingoing ambassador and permanent envoy to the UN.

Khatami said that Iran accepted talks with Europe as a principleand had thus far extended its "utmost cooperation" in that field.

He reiterated that Iran's activities in the field of nuclear energy are peaceful and "free from any ambiguity."

The Islamic Republic's legislation supervisory body, the Guardian Council, approved a law that presses the government to continue its efforts to get access to peaceful nuclear technology, including uranium enrichment activities.

However, the law, passed by the hardliner-dominated Majlis (parliament) on May 15, does not set a specified date for the government to resume enrichment activities.

Iran held a key round of talks with the European Union (EU) on Wednesday, during which the two sides prevented the deadlocked nuclear negotiations from going further into crisis by virtually prolonging the negotiations to wait for result of Iran's presidential elections on June 17.

During the talks, the EU presented a proposal that portrays its new position on Iran's nuclear program, according to Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Hassan Rowhani.

"The Europeans have proposed to present a comprehensive plan within the next two months for all-out cooperation with Iran in different areas including technical and nuclear issues," Rowhani said on Friday.

The current deadlock came as a result of the EU's repeated rejection to Iran's demand for keeping restricted uranium activates.

In late April, Tehran threatened to resume its highly sensitive uranium enrichment activities, which it suspended last November in exchanged for economic and technological incentives promised by theEU.

Tehran's threat was immediately hit back by the EU, which warnedof backing a US-proposed referral of Iran's nuclear case to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions on the country.

The United States has accused Iran of developing nuclear weapons secretly, a charge rejected by Tehran as politically motivated.

Source: Xinhua