President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Thursday Iran was about to take the "final step" in a nuclear programme which the UN has called on it to curtail and which the West fears may be used to make atomic bombs.
Ahmadinejad did not say what the final step was, but he repeated comments he made this week that Iran would celebrate its "right to nuclear technology" by March, the end of the Iranian year, the official IRNA news agency reported.
Tehran, which says its nuclear aims are peaceful, faces possible sanctions for ignoring UN demands to halt sensitive atomic work, but there is no agreement at the UN Security Council on any penalties. Analysts say this may be encouraging Iran in its defiant stance.
"The Iranian nation is about to take its final step in the nuclear issue," IRNA quoted Ahmadinejad as saying. He added that Iran would "resist until the end". "I hope that by the end of the year we will be able to hold celebrations about the Iranian nation's right to nuclear technology," he said.
In comments carried by Iran's Mehr News Agency, the president said: "This path that Iran has chosen is irreversible and big powers should not make useless efforts to prevent the Iranian nation from moving forward."
Analysts say the defeat for US President George W. Bush's Republican Party in last week's congressional elections may also have buoyed Iran, even though it remains wary of the victorious Democrats, who are seen in Tehran as close to arch-foe Israel.
"There will be less concern, at least in the immediate future, about any decisions to be made against Iran by the US administration," said one Iranian analyst, who asked not to be named as the topic is sensitive in Iran.
Iran has snubbed an offer of economic and political incentives, backed by six big powers, to halt uranium enrichment, which can make fuel for power plants or material for warheads. Instead, Tehran says it will expand its work.
Iran now runs two chains of 164 centrifuges used for enrichment. But it says it wants to develop "industrial-scale" enrichment and plans to install 3,000 centrifuges by March. Ahmadinejad said this week Iran ultimately aimed for 60,000.
Iran has so far enriched only tiny amounts of uranium suitable for fuel. With 3,000 centrifuges in place, it could make enough material for at least one warhead, experts say.
"I wouldn't be surprised if they have 3,000 up by March," a senior diplomat in Vienna said. "The technical challenge they have not overcome yet is to keep that many centrifuges interlinked and spinning consistently."
The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said in a report this week Iran had not provided enough information to determine whether its plans were peaceful and was stonewalling IAEA probes.
"Our knowledge of Iranian activities is steadily deteriorating given how difficult it is for inspectors to move around there and the inability to make unannounced inspections," said another Vienna diplomat familiar with IAEA work in Iran. Iran, the world's fourth largest oil exporter, says it has provided information requested.