UN Resolution 1696, which dangles the threat of sanctions unless Iran halts uranium enrichment and other work that could help build a nuclear bomb, was welcomed by the United States and its allies but decried as "destructive and totally unwarranted" by Iran's UN ambassador.

"I would suggest to you that this approach will not lead to any productive outcome. It can only exacerbate the situation," Javad Zarif told the Security Council.

"The Americans must be sure that Iran will not take part in a game which it will lose," Kazem Jalali, spokesman for the Iranian parliament's foreign affairs commission, was also quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency.

"If there were to be a loser, it would be those who have shifted the Iranian nuclear issue away from dialogue," he warned.

The Security Council gave Tehran an August 31 deadline to comply, and said that International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohammed ElBaradei should then report back on what Iran has done to fall into line.

But the text of the resolution held off from an immediate threat of sanctions, which have been opposed by Russia and China, and said any punitive action would have to be the subject of further discussions.

A state radio commentator said the resolution was merely fresh proof that "Western countries want to prevent Iran from having an independent nuclear energy programme."

"A powerful Iran which masters the latest technology is against their interests," the commentator said, adding that "history has shown that when the people have a goal and the government supports them, nothing can hold them back."

Iran insists it only wants to enrich uranium to make reactor fuel and that this is a right enshrined by the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Demands for a suspension stem from widespread suspicions the country wants the capacity to make weapons-grade uranium.

An editorial in the ultra-hardline Siasat Rouz newspaper called on the government to quit the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) -- something officials have already threatened to do if the pressure mounts.

"In preparing the final battle, we should at first attack US bases in neighbouring countries and then clear the region of this infected microbe," the paper said, while also calling on Iran to rally "friendly governments and Muslim people ready to carry out suicide attacks".

The hardline Jomhuri Eslami paper said the resolution was "unacceptable", complaining that the United States was meanwhile "preventing any move to bring a ceasefire" between Israel and Iran's Lebanese allies Hezbollah.

"It shows the Security Council has sadly become an instrument in the hands of the Americans," the paper fumed. "Iran will undoubtably respond by suspending its adhesion to the NPT."

The hardline Kayhan newspaper, whose firebrand editor is appointed by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, played down the importance of the resolution.

"Experts believe that this resolution does not carry the necessary weight and that the objective... is to threaten Iran rather than take action," the paper said.

Senior government officials are expected to speak on the issue later Tuesday.

On Monday, US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters that Iran would head "down the road of further isolation" if it failed to heed the Security Council call.

"The international community has offered them a pathway... so that we can have negotiations," said McCormack.

"They don't have anywhere to hide. They don't have any protectors," he said. "It is in their interest, it is in the interest of the international community for them to comply."

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