Iran said on Saturday that it would not back down in its nuclear right with major powers, voicing defiance on the day of an informal deadline set by the West over Tehran's disputed atomic ambitions.

Western powers gave Tehran two weeks from July 19 to respond to their offer to hold off from imposing more U.N. sanctions if Iran froze any expansion of its nuclear work.

That would suggest a deadline of Saturday but Iran, which has repeatedly ruled out curbing its nuclear activities, dismissed the idea of having two weeks to reply.

The Western powers accuse Iran of seeking to build nuclear weapons under cover of a civilian power program. Iran, the world's fourth-largest oil producer, denies the charge.

"In whichever negotiation we take part ... it is unequivocally with the view to the realization of Iran's nuclear right and the Iranian nation would not retreat one iota from its rights," President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said.

He made the remark in a statement posted on the presidential website after talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Assad visited Tehran a few weeks after he said in Paris he would respond to French President Nicolas Sarkozy's request and use his good relations with the Islamic Republic to help resolve the nuclear stand-off.

The statement quoted the Syrian leader as saying that based on international agreements, all countries had the right to enrich uranium and have nuclear power stations.

Enrichment can provide fuel for power plants, which Iran says is its aim, but also material for bombs if refined more.

Iran is a myth

A MYTH THAT HAS TO BE BUSTED

touche

I have an idea...

Great.

If we nuke Iran, it will still look the same as before dropping the bomb.