Tehran (ANTARA News/AFP) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said it is in the West`s interests to come to an accommodation with his government over its nuclear programme, state television reported on Monday.

Cooperation with Iran on its programme is "beneficial to the Westerners because their opposition to it will make Iran stronger and more advanced," the hardline president told a meeting of Asia-Pacific news agencies late on Sunday.

His comments came after US President Barack Obama said "time is running out" for Iran to respond to UN-drafted proposals for it to be supplied with nuclear fuel in a way that allays Western concerns about its intentions.

"Enemies have politicised the nuclear issue using all of their abilities to try to make the Iranian nation surrender, but they have been defeated," the broadcaster quoted Ahmadinejad as saying on its website.

"The basic rights of the Iranian nation are non-negotiable and Iran`s nuclear activity is being carried out entirely under International Atomic Energy Agency supervision," the president said.

The UN watchdog has drafted a plan backed by the major powers under which Iran would ship out most of its stocks of low-enriched uranium and in return receive fuel for a research reactor in Tehran.

Iran has yet to give a definitive response to the proposals but several senior officials have spoken out against key elements of them.On Sunday, Obama warned: "We now are running out of time.

"Unfortunately, so far at least, Iran has been unable to say yes," the US president said after talks with his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev at an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Singapore.(*)

Editor: Aditia Maruli
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