China said yesterday that a UN report showing Iran's uranium enrichment program was gathering momentum, instead of being suspended, was objective and urged all parties to strengthen efforts to unravel the stalemate.

"We believe that the related resolutions of the UN Security Council should be implemented," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told a news briefing.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN nuclear watchdog, delivered a report yesterday saying that Iran was making substantial advances in uranium enrichment in defiance of two UN Security Council resolutions.

Reports said Security Council members indicated that they would not rush to impose additional sanctions before any decision is made on next steps.

A senior European diplomat at the Security Council stressed he expected the Council to await the outcome of high-level exploratory talks on the issue between the EU and Iran next week.

China's deputy UN ambassador Liu Zhenmin said yesterday that experts from six key countries will meet by the end of the month to discuss the next course of action.

Iran dismissed the UN report and argued that it continues to cooperate with the IAEA and abide by its commitment to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The West suspects Iran is using a declared civilian nuclear energy program as a facade for mastering the means to make atomic bombs, while the country insists its program is for the peaceful purpose of generating nuclear energy.

"The IAEA has so far been very careful about making its judgments. It has not reached any conclusions about an Iranian military nuclear program nor has it found sufficient evidence to prove its innocence," said Yin Gang, a researcher at the Institute of West Asia and Africa Studies affiliated to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Most importantly, the IAEA must be able to monitor the enrichment levels, which would foster confidence within the international community that Iran's nuclear program would remain solely civilian, he said.

Negotiations are still the means to bring Iran back to the world's nuclear non-proliferation regime, Yin added.

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said yesterday that Iran is close to achieving its "ultimate goals", accusing the West of trying to stop Teheran's nuclear programme in order to reduce its influence in the world.

"The enemies want us to surrender so that Iran won't have anything to say in the world," Ahmadinejad said in a speech according to Iranian news agencies.

(China Daily May 25, 2007)