Iran warned it is prepared to defend itself "in a second" if attacked and followed that up Thursday by dismissing accusations of nuclear non-compliance as "baseless."

"If anyone launches attacks on our country, either on nuclear or non-nuclear sites, without any need of justification, we will start our counterattack and force them to retreat in a second," Iranian Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani said on Wednesday at the 15th International Conference on the Persian Gulf, which opened on Tuesday in Teheran.

"Nobody can threat against Iran," he added.

The United States and Israel, accusing Iran of developing nuclear weapons secretly, have hinted at possible preemptive attacks on Iran's nuclear facilities. In return, Iran said it would strongly stand up to any aggression with its effective "deterrent power" in the region.

Meanwhile EU turned the heat up on Iran and its nuclear program, accusing the country of non-compliance just as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) board of governors met.

European complaints surfaced on Wednesday at a meeting of the IAEA in Vienna, where EU countries negotiating with Iran over its nuclear program expressed "regret" that Teheran had not reported the existence of an underground tunnel at the Isfahan uranium plant.

At the same time, the IAEA said Iran had refused to allow inspections of the Parchin military complex.

But an Iranian nuclear spokesman Thursday said the European Union accusation of non-compliance regarding Teheran's enriched uranium programme was "baseless."

Hussein Mussavian, spokesman of Iran's nuclear delegation team, said the issue of the tunnel had been brought in advance to the attention of the IAEA.

The EU trio of France, Germany and Britain also accused Iran of conducting quality control tests on centrifuge components despite the country's pledge to temporarily suspend uranium enrichment.

Speaking to the Iranian news network Khabar, Mussavian said "claims on the quality control tests on centrifuge components are not correct as all Iran did was some repair and maintenance work on the centrifuges which are permissible according to IAEA regulations."

(China Daily March 4, 2005)