Tehran  - Any new sanctions would make Iran stronger and more decisive in achieving its technological goals, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Saturday in a speech in Arak, central Iran.

"You have witnessed that despite sanctions we not only moved forward in the nuclear issue but even launched a satellite-carrier," Ahmadinejad said in the speech carried live by the news network Khabar.

Iran claims to have 3,000 operating centrifuges in the uranium enrichment plant in Natanz, central Iran, and this month launched a satellite carrier into orbit.

The Islamic state even wants to send its first astronaut into space by 2018.

"The big powers should know that sanctions would just make the nation stronger and more decisive in reaching the peak of its technological goals," the president added.

Tehran had earlier this month termed the latest sanctions by the European Union as psychological propaganda which would not change the Iranian position. (dpa)