Ahmadinejad vows he won't be bullied by the West

Iran's president stood fast Saturday behind his decision to conduct uranium enrichment research, shrugging off threats of international sanctions, while his Foreign Ministry invited Europe and the U.N. nuclear watchdog back to the negotiating table.

In a ringing defense of Iran's resumption Tuesday of research at its nuclear enrichment facility at Natanz, President &to=http://english.pravda.ru/world/20/91/366/16382_Ahmadinejad.html' target=_blank>Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tehran had not violated the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which he said allows signatories to produce nuclear fuel.

The move drew fierce international condemnation and threats to seek U.N. sanctions, but Ahmadinejad was unmoved.

"The time of using language of bullying and coercion ... is over," he said.

"There is no evidence to prove Iran's diversion (toward nuclear weapons)," Ahmadinejad told a packed news conference in the capital.