"If a resolution is passed... it will have serious and logical consequences and we will announce them later," Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told a press conference.

His comments came as the Security Council held informal talks at Britain's UN mission in New York to review a proposed third set of sanctions over Tehran's refusal to halt uranium enrichment, while Russia confirmed the final delivery of fuel for Iran's first nuclear power plant.

The sanctions package was agreed last week by foreign ministers of the council's five veto-wielding permanent members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- plus Germany.

It is meant to form the basis of a third set of economic and trade sanctions against Iran for defying Security Council demands to stop uranium enrichment activities that the West fears could be used to make a nuclear bomb.

In Washington, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Monday that a new UN resolution against Iran should deepen current sanctions and could pave the way for other action over its nuclear program.

Asked if the text hammered out in Germany last week fell short of US expectations, she replied it was "no secret that a resolution of that kind is a negotiated product" that reconciles different views.

"The important thing is that it both deepens ... sanctions against Iran and opens the possibility of new directions, like for instance the possibility of cargo inspections," Rice told a press conference with Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith.

The Islamic Republic insists its nuclear program is peaceful and aims at generating electricity. It also argues it has the right to conduct uranium enrichment as a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The proposed new measures include an outright travel ban by officials involved in Tehran's nuclear and missile programs and inspections of shipments to and from Iran if there are suspicions of prohibited goods.

Diplomats said approval of the package, presented to the council's 10 non-permanent members on Friday, was likely to take several weeks.

Mottaki also served notice that a new resolution "will not affect Iran's determination to pursue its rights in using nuclear energy."

He said the Security Council should wait for a March meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency board of governors before taking a decision.

"The IAEA final report will confirm that there has not been any deviation" in Iran's nuclear programme towards weapons development, he said.

"If the IAEA reports that Iran has not deviated in past, the Security Council should be brave enough to make amends and cancel the two resolutions, and allow the IAEA to supervise our work like all member states."

Despite a four-year probe into Tehran's atomic drive, the UN nuclear watchdog has so far been unable to certify whether it is peaceful.

On January 13, the IAEA announced that Iran had agreed to clear up remaining questions on its nuclear program -- including any military activity -- in four weeks.

A US intelligence report in December said that Iran halted a nuclear weapons program in 2003, but Washington is pressing for tighter sanctions to stop Tehran's enrichment program.

Meanwhile, Russia said it had completed fuel deliveries for Iran's first nuclear power plant in the Gulf port of Bushehr with the arrival of an eighth consignment.

"The final delivery has been completed .... It was 8.6 tonnes of uranium," the Russian contractor Atomstroiexport's spokeswoman Irina Yesipova told AFP.

Asked if the plant would go on line this year, she said: "Ideally, yes. If all the conditions are met, then it will."

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