VIENNA, Austria -- A defiant Iran kept on enriching uranium in advance of the U.N. Security Council's Thursday deadline for Tehran to freeze such activity or face the threat of sanctions, U.N. and European officials said.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad urged European members of the council against resorting to sanctions, saying punishment would not dissuade his country from pursuing its disputed nuclear program.
"Sanctions cannot dissuade the Iranian nation from achieving our lofty goals of progress. So it's better for Europe to be independent (of the U.S.) in decision-making and to settle problems through negotiations," Ahmadinejad said Wednesday, according to state-run television.
Iran could theoretically still announce a full stop to enrichment before the deadline set by the Security Council. But that appeared unlikely, considering Tehran's past refusal to consider such a move and findings by the International Atomic Energy Agency that it was enriching small quantities of uranium as late as Tuesday.
Iran's refusal to heed the Security Council up to now will be detailed in a confidential IAEA report to be completed Thursday and circulated among the Vienna-based agency's 35 board member nations. The report also will include new details on Tehran's research into advanced enrichment equipment, and other points, diplomats accredited to the agency told The Associated Press.
The report, also scheduled to go to the Security Council on Thursday, would likely trigger council members to consider economic and political sanctions. Russia and China, however, were likely to resist U.S.-led efforts for a quick response, which likely means sanctions do not loom immediately.
An earlier resolution on Iran took weeks for the Security Council members to negotiate, as did talks over a weaker council statement earlier this year demanding that Iran suspend enrichment. As well, the IAEA report may not be formally considered by the Security Council before the agency's board meets and approves it in mid-September.
It's not even clear when exactly the deadline will run out. The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, said Wednesday that he believed it would end at 12:01 a.m. Friday in Tehran _ or 3:31 p.m. Thursday at the Security Council in New York.
But diplomats said the exact timing was not particularly relevant for two reasons: They believe Iran already has given its answer; and they would almost certainly abandon their sanctions threat if Iran decides to suspend enrichment after the deadline.
Bolton said the U.S. still has not decided how it will formally respond once the deadline expires, though he will likely make some sort of statement on Thursday afternoon. He repeated, however, that Washington would seek sanctions if Iran disregards the resolution.
"That has been our intention for some months, it remains our intention, it'll be our intention on September the first if the Iranians don't comply with the resolution," he said.
Even Moscow and Beijing, which have traditional economic and strategic ties with Tehran, are increasingly vexed at what world powers consider Iranian intransigence on enrichment _ a process that generates nuclear energy but also creates the fissile core of warheads.
The U.S. State Department has called for sanctions against Iran and has also said that Iran has not indicated to the United Nations that they intend to follow through with halting their nuclear program. 

"We would expect that the parties would immediately begin formal discussions about a resolution that would call for sanctions," said spokesman for the State Dapartment, Sean McCormack.

"Sanctions have been our intention for some months, it remains our intention, it'll be our intention on September the first if the Iranians don't comply with the resolution," said John R. Bolton, the U.S. embassador to the United Nations.

Today, the ''Washington Post'' reported that the International Atomic Energy Agency will report to the U.N. tomorrow that Iran is still enriching Uranium despite a U.N. resolution calling for the country to halt its nuclear program.

The Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing however, has called for a "diplomatic resolution" to Iran's nuclear program.

Iran's President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that sanctions will not stop Iran from their "lofty goals of progress." He also said that Europe should "be independent from the U.S. in decision-making and to settle problems through negotiations" in regards to Iran's nuclear program.

The deadline set by the U.N. is set to expire on August 31.