Iran on Tuesday rejected a recent statement issued by the European Union (EU) which urges Tehran to fully suspend activities related to uranium enrichment before the two sides resume the stalled bilateral nuclear talks.

Iranian chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani Tuesday rejected the EU call to stop the uranium conversion facilities and condemned the EU for having gone extremes and adopting journalistic hype toward the Iranian nuclear issue, the official IRNA news agency reported.

EU foreign ministers issued a statement on Monday at a meeting in Brussels, Belgium, to reiterate Europe's precondition for reopening the talks that Iran must fully suspend all enrichment-related activities.

The statement came one day after Larijani called on the EU to resume the nuclear talks in a letter to foreign ministers of France, Britain and Germany, the European trio negotiating with Iran on behalf of the union.

Larijani expressed hope that Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Mohamed ElBaradei to deliver a "satisfactory report" on Iran's nuclear program and "verify that the program is of civilian nature".

Earlier in the day, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi also voiced regret over the EU's insistence on the demand of full suspension, calling on Europe to "honor its previous commitments and officially recognize Iran's rights in this regard and not be bigoted if the ground is to be paved for understanding and progress".

Meanwhile, former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who currently chairs the powerful Expediency Council, said that Iran would continue confidence-building measures on its nuclear dispute.

Criticizing the EU for failing to react positively to Iran's suspension of enrichment-related activities, Rafsanjani stressed that confidence-building measures "is a two-sided process".

The nuclear negotiations between Iran and the EU, starting after Tehran suspended all activities related to uranium enrichment in Nov. 2004, have been scuttled since Iran in early August resumed the uranium conversion activities, the preparatory step for enrichment.

In response to Iran's defiant move, the IAEA in late September adopted a EU-drafted resolution, urging Iran to re-suspend all enrichment-related activities with the warning of referring its nuclear case to the UN Security Council.

Iran has rejected the resolution as politically motivated, saying that it will never return to the full suspension. The United States accuses Iran of developing nuclear weapons secretly, a charge rejected by Tehran.

(Xinhua News Agency November 9, 2005)