U.S. says Iran must back off nuke action

Iran still says it will make no concessions.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday that Iran will have no choice but to comply with worldwide insistence that it back off its disputed nuclear activities.
Rice indicated the next step against Iran will be a resolution at the United Nations Security Council seeking punitive or coercive sanctions to stop what the United States says is a covert drive to acquire nuclear weapons.
"When the Security Council reconvenes, there will have to be some consequence for that action and that defiance," Rice said after a meeting with Canada's new foreign minister, Peter MacKay. "And we will look at the full range of options available to the Security Council."
Rice referred to the Security Council's power to "compel ... member states of the U.N. to obey the will of the international system."
"I'm certain that we'll look at measures that could be taken to ensure that Iran knows that they really have no choice but to comply," Rice said.
Denies weapons intent
Iran denies it intends to build weapons, and has refused to give up what it calls a legitimate program to develop nuclear power for electricity.
In Tehran, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran will make no concessions in talks this week with the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, who is visiting the Iranian capital to try to defuse Iran's standoff with the West.
"We won't hold talks with anyone about the right of the Iranian nation" to enrich uranium, as Iran announced this week it has done, Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying Thursday by the official Islamic Republic News Agency. "No one has the right to retreat, even one iota," he said.
Iran says it is enriching uranium to a low degree to be used as fuel for generating power in a reactor. Higher-level enrichment makes uranium suitable for a nuclear bomb, but Western experts familiar with Iran's program say the country is far from producing weapons-grade uranium.
"Our answer to those who are angry about Iran achieving the full nuclear fuel cycle is just one phrase: We say, 'Be angry at us and die of this anger,'" Ahmadinejad said.
Facing deadline
The Security Council has given Iran until April 28 to cease uranium enrichment activities, a deadline Rice mentioned Thursday.
"We are still in a diplomatic phase, but we have set the end of the month essentially for Iran to respond," Rice said. "At that point, the Security Council has got to take this back up."
Russia and China, permanent members of the Security Council that hold veto power, have said they oppose sanctions, but U.S. officials say it is too soon to tell how the U.N. body might act.
Would back sanctions
MacKay, Canada's foreign minister, said his country would support sanctions if a graduated campaign of international pressure on Iran did not work.
"They appear to be consistently crossing the line step by step and becoming less and less communicative," MacKay said at the State Department.
At the White House, spokesman Scott McClellan was asked about the prospects for a "peaceful resolution," given Iran's stance and its latest announcement on uranium.
"Well, you can understand why we are skeptical, given the regime's history," McClellan replied. "This is a regime that has a history of hiding their nuclear activities from the international community and not abiding by their international obligations."
Earlier Thursday, several top U.S. intelligence officials said Iran remains years away from obtaining the materials and technology necessary for a nuclear weapon despite its claims of progress announced this week.
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