Ahmadinejad says Iran will react if ships inspected

Tehran:  Iran will react swiftly if its commercial shipping or aviation are subjected to inspection, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Sunday.

A UN Security Council resolution on June 9 imposed restrictions on a number of sectors, including Iranian shipping, in an effort to persuade Tehran to curb its nuclear enrichment activities.

Under the latest sanctions, countries would have the authority to inspect cargo ships going to, or leaving Iran.

"You should know whoever takes a decision against the Iranian nation, such as the so-called inspection of the Iranian ships or so-and-so towards its aircraft, will immediately receive Iran's reaction," Ahmadinejad told a conference in a speech broadcast live on radio.

Earlier this month, the European Union banned more planes operated by Iran Air from flying into the airspace of the 27-country bloc, on safety grounds.

It denied reports that there was a ban on Iranian commercial airliners refueling in Germany and Britain as a result of US sanctions. However, some oil companies have stopped jet fuel supplies to Iranian aircraft outside Iran.

Reaffirming that the Islamic state was not seeking hostility with any country, Ahmadinejad said: "We are in favour of friendship and logic."

Iran, the world's fifth largest oil producer, has been the subject of four rounds of UN sanctions over its defiance of suspending its uranium enrichment activities.

Iran says its nuclear programme is designed to produce electricity and that sanctions will not bring about change.