Khatami warns of higher oil prices if UN sanctions Iran

"Currently the price of each barrel of oil is 70 dollars and this high price has created many difficulties for the industrialised world," Khatami told reporters on the sidelines of an international conference on Islam and the West.

"The first effect of a sanction against Iran will be that this high price will even increase higher."

The UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, earlier this month voted to report Tehran to the UN Security Council, paving the way for possible sanctions.

Khatami said the current Iranian government headed by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was merely maintaining previous nuclear policies implemented by the Islamic republic.

"From the outset we have said that peaceful nuclear technology is our right. And we have said that under no circumstances will we go towards making nuclear weapons," Khatami said.

Khatami, who believes that the UN Security Council will find it difficult to reach a consensus on sanctioning Iran, said he hopes efforts will be made to continue to resolve the matter through negotiations and diplomacy.

Iran will continue to cooperate with the IAEA, he added.

"We will not do anything illegal. Even our (uranium) enrichment for fuel for our nuclear power stations has been conducted under supervision of the IAEA. Thus I don't think there is a possibility of sanctions for doing something that is legal," he said.

Khatami also said that Iran was being unfairly targetted by the United States and that the international community should focus instead on achieving a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East.

The former Iranian president was among the participants at a two-day international conference entitled "Who Speaks for Islam? Who Speaks for the West?".

On Friday, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi warned the conference of a "huge chasm" between the West and Islam, slamming what he called the widespread "demonisation of Islam" in Western society.

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