Tehran - Iran is not afraid of new financial sanctions and would go on with its nuclear programmes, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday.

"Sanctions are not important at all, and we ignore them as they [the world powers] have made such threats in the last three years and nothing happened," Ahmadinejad said at a new conference in Tehran.

The president was referring to US and European threats to impose further sanctions on Iran after the UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA), said Monday that it had documents indicating there were administrative and technical links between past Iranian work on uranium conversion, explosives testing and missile development, all of which appear to be related to nuclear weapons.

"As far was we are concerned, the report was in favour of Iran as for the 12th-consecutive time, the IAEA confirmed that our nuclear projects are peaceful," Ahmadinejad said.

"But as far as the allegations are concerned, we believe that the IAEA has no right to deal with allegations levelled, whether by the United States or any other country, against nuclear projects of an IAEA member state like Iran," he added.

Ahmadinejad reiterated Iran's nuclear projects were peaceful and that there has never been any diversion toward a military programme as feared by the West.

"Our position is clear, and our hands are full," Ahmadinejad warned. "Any move, whether sanctions or military strikes, would face our reciprocation and make them regret their actions." (dpa)