TEHRAN, Iran — Iran shrugged off reports that the United States is drawing backup plans for military action, saying Monday they were an attempt to scare it into halting its nuclear program and warning any attack would bring a "suitable response."
A top European Union official, meanwhile, rejected any use of force against Iran in the confrontation over its nuclear program.
But Javier Solana, the EU foreign policy chief, recommended the 25-nation bloc consider sanctions against Tehran — raising the possibility of international punishment even if the United States and Europe cannot persuade the United Nations to impose such measures.
The statements came as the chief of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, Mohammed ElBaradei, was due to visit Iran at midweek for talks on the standoff. Officials with his International Atomic Energy Agency have said he is hoping to win at least partial concessions from Iran. IAEA inspectors are currently in Iran visiting two key facilities.
Several American media reports over the weekend said the Bush administration was studying options for military strikes against Iran to stop its nuclear program. The New Yorker magazine raised the possibility of using atomic bombs against Iran's underground nuclear sites.
President Bush said Monday the reports were "wild speculation." He said his vow to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons "doesn't mean force, necessarily. In this case it means diplomacy."
But the White House was not ruling out a military response and said "normal defense and intelligence planning" was under way.
Tehran insists its nuclear program aims to develop energy, denying U.S. and Western accusations that it intends to build weapons. Iran has rejected a U.N. Security Council demand that it end uranium enrichment, a key process that can develop either fuel for a reactor or the material needed for a warhead.
In a speech on Monday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad promised to announce "good nuclear news" in the next five days.
He did not elaborate, but he could be hinting that Iranian scientists have achieved progress in testing the centrifuges used in uranium enrichment, a complex process that Iran has been researching but so far has not said it has perfected.
Iran repeatedly has said it does not believe the U.S. will attempt military action even as it vows the threat of U.N. sanctions will not force it to give up enrichment completely. But with tensions rising, it held military maneuvers in the Gulf last week, displaying a series of what it called high-tech missiles and torpedoes it said could fend off any American attack.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi dismissed the reports of U.S. military planning as "as psychological warfare, resulting from the Americans' anger and despair."
Ali Larijani, the secretary of Iran's supreme National Security Council, also played down the reports.
"If the U.S. commits such a mistake, it would receive a suitable response," Larijani was quoted as saying by the state news agency IRNA.
Ahmadinejad said Iran would not be dissuaded from its nuclear goals.
"Our enemies know that they can't cause a minute's pause in our nation's motion forward," Ahmadinejad told thousands of people gathered in Mashad, capital of Razavi Khorasan province in northeastern Iran. "Unfortunately today some bullying powers are unable to give up their bullying nature.
"There are some weak people who intend to frighten our nation, he said in the speech, parts of which were aired on state television. "I do advise people not to be afraid when some international power frowns."
The U.N. Security Council gave Tehran until April 28 to give up enrichment before the International Atomic Energy Agency reports back to the council on its progress. The United States and Europe are pressing for the U.N. to impose sanctions on Iran, but Russia and China have opposed such a step.
China's U.N. Ambassador Wang Guangya, addressing the new reports, said "we believe the military or the tough measures will not yield good results. It's not helpful."
Solana ruled out the use of force, saying "any military action is definitely out of the question for us."
But the EU should consider imposing its own sanctions if Iran does not bend — including visa bans on some political leaders, nuclear officials and scientists as well as formally suspending negotiations on a free trade pact — Solana said in a report presented to EU foreign ministers.
"Iran has to respond to the Security Council. We have to be prepared in case they fail," said Solana.
Iran has called for negotiations, hinting that it could compromise on large-scale enrichment of uranium. Its scientists resumed small-scale enrichment research in February, prompting the IAEA to report it to the U.N. Security Council.
Five inspectors from the IAEA visited Iran's Uranium Conversion Facility in Isfahan on Sunday, which reprocesses raw uranium into hexafluoride gas, the feedstock for enrichment.
The team was next due to visit the Natanz uranium enrichment plant. The five inspectors are in Iran until Tuesday or Wednesday.