The announcement by Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini comes after an official in Spain said Iran had pledged to end years of stonewalling and provide answers about past suspicious nuclear activities to the IAEA, the UN nuclear monitoring agency.

"If reviewing of Iran's nuclear issue returns to the agency, the Islamic Republic of Iran is ready to reach an agreement over settling a few remaining problems with the agency in the short term," Hosseini told reporters in his weekly news conference in Tehran.

But Hosseini's comments and the offer, which Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani made to the EU's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, during talks in Spain last week, appeared to fall short of Security Council demands that Iran suspend uranium enrichment.

Hosseini said during Larijani's talks on Thursday with Solana in Madrid that Iran did not discuss halting enrichment. Iran has refused to freeze enrichment, which can produce both reactor fuel and at higher levels weapons-grade material.

"Such a thing was not discussed in the talks," he said when he was asked if the suspension was debated in the talks. "No change has applied in Iran's stance as a consequence of the talks."

The Security Council first imposed sanctions on Iran in December and modestly increased them in March over Iran's refusal to suspend enrichment. The council is now preparing to debate on a third round of punitive measures.

"All should know that the possible third resolution on sanctions and more restrictions on Iran will not dissuade us from our way," Hosseini said.

An IAEA report in May provided the potential trigger for another round of sanctions by saying Tehran continued to defy the Security Council ban on enrichment and instead was expanding its activities.

Meanwhile, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad yesterday launched a new verbal attack on Israel, saying a "countdown" has begun that will end with Lebanese and Palestinian militants destroying the Jewish state.

In a speech to mark the 18th anniversary of the death of revolutionary founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the president said last summer's war between Israel and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah started the process.

"In Lebanon, the corrupt, arrogant powers and the Zionist regime did all they could in an unfair 33-day war. But after 60 years its (Israel's) greatness fell apart," Iranian media quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.