AFP, June 11, 2008 (excerpts) – President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday refused to back down over Iran’s nuclear programme, days ahead of a trip to Tehran by the EU foreign policy chief in search of a compromise in the crisis.

Iran will not trade its “dignity” in its nuclear programme, Ahmadinejad said, in an apparent refusal to consider the main demand of world powers over his country’s nuclear programme.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana will visit Tehran on Saturday and Sunday in an effort to convince Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment activities, his spokeswoman said on Wednesday.

“They think they can trample on the Iranian nation’s dignity with such things,” the ISNA news agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying in a speech in the province of Chaharmahal Bakhtiari, referring to incentive offers by the West.

“We will not trade our dignity with anything. If they want to give us something, then they should sell it and we will buy it.”

Ahmadinejad’s blunt comments appear to be his latest affirmation Iran has no intention of halting sensitive uranium enrichment activities in its nuclear drive, which Western countries fear could be used to make an atomic bomb.