Vienna- There is little members of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) can do at their meeting on September 22 to get Iran to halt its nuclear programme and show more transparency.

Diplomats said it was up to the United Nations Security Council in New York, rather than the IAEA Board of Governors in Vienna, to take further steps.

Top diplomats of permanent Security Council members China, Britain, France, Russia and the United States, as well as Germany, are set to gather in Washington on Friday to discuss further steps regarding Iran.

Tehran - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday that Iran had nothing against Israeli Jews but called on them to return to their "countries of origin."

"Although we distinguish between the people (Jews living in Israel) and the Zionist (Israeli) regime, but we neither acknowledge an Israeli government nor a nation," Ahmadinejad said in a press conference in Tehran.

Tehran  - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday criticized European Union policies in the Caucasus crisis.

"The Europeans should have studied more carefully and made a better assessment of the regional situation and eventually not allowed the crisis to happen at all," Ahmadinejad said at a press conference in Tehran, referring to Europe's support for Georgia's NATO membership.

Referring to Afghanistan, Ahmadinejad said that whenever NATO was involved, "The situation got worse and tensions increased."

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

Tehran  - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday declared his readiness to have a televised debate with the two US presidential candidates, Barack Obama and John McCain.

"I have no intention to officially meet American officials in New York, but I am ready for a televised debate with the two US presidential candidates at the UN," Ahmadinejad said at a press conference in Tehran.

"I had the same intention with [President George W] Bush," he said, referring to his two requests for such an encounter. They were rejected by the White House as propaganda.

Paris - France on Tuesday joined the United States in calling for additional sanctions against Iran after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Monday that Teheran was continuing to expand its uranium enrichment programme.

"We have no other choice but to draw up another UN Security Council resolution on sanctions in the coming days and weeks," French Foreign Ministry spokesman Eric Chevalier said.

Chevalier described as "very worrying" the fact that Iranian authorities had not replied to questions regarding matters that could be related to the development of nuclear weapons.