New York, Sept 25 : In the wake of the fresh spate of suicide attacks in Pakistan, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said that terrorism in Pakistan and Afghanistan needed a ‘negotiated settlement’ and not a “military action”.

He said that as the British and Soviet forces failed to resolve the Afghan crisis, the US-led NATO troops could also not do any better in Pakistan.

Vienna - The European Union and the United States said Wednesday they were ready to start comprehensive talks with Iran on its nuclear programme, but also indicated their support for new measures should Tehran continue to defy the UN Security Council.

Many IAEA members are concerned about Iran's refusal to answer lingering questions over past research that could have been related to the development of nuclear weapons.

"We have to react," French Ambassador Francois-Xavier Deniau told the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna. France holds the rotating EU presidency.

UN Security Council talks on more sanctions against Iran were cancelled when Russia withdrew from a meeting planned this week in New York, Russian officials said Wednesday.

An official in the Russian delegation to the UN told news agency Ria-Novosti that Foreign Minster Sergei Lavrov could not take attend due to "the intensity of his schedule."

The Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, said it saw no need for an emergency session on Iran.

Nicosia, Sept 24: Gholamhossein Nejabat, Managing Director of the National Petrochemical Company (NPC) of Iran, has said that 20 subsidiaries of NPC have been earmarked for privatization.

He added that so far Carbon Iran, Farabi, Abadan, Kharg, Isfahan, Arak, Shiraz, Razi and Polika Karaj have been wholly privatized and that 52 of the 81 subsidiaries of the National Petrochemical Company have been semi-privatized.

Nejabad told journalists that more companies would be privatized if Iran Privatization Organisation approved the transfer of other petrochemical companies as a single block or holding companies.

New York - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived Monday at the United Nations in New York in the face of protests, amid the US presidential election fray.

Jewish-American groups held a rally Monday morning outside UN headquarters in New York and planned another major demonstration on Tuesday, when Ahmadinejad is to give his formal address to the General Assembly.

The rally was catapulted into the US political limelight last week after it emerged that Sarah Palin, vice presidential running mate of Republican presidential nominee John McCain, was scheduled to speak.

Tehran  - The world powers cannot stop Iran's nuclear progress, state media on Monday quoted Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as saying upon his arrival in New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly.

"The talks made by some (countries) will be no hurdle in the course of progress of the Iranian nation," Ahmadinejad told state television network IRIB in New York.

The president was referring to the demand by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany (5+1) for Iran to suspend its controversial uranium enrichment process or face further political isolation and financial sanctions.