Many Iranians are worried about international nuclear sanctions but also want the country to have atomic weapons, according to a survey by a US institute revealed Wednesday.

The poll, carried out by Charney Research for the International Peace Institute, a New York-based think tank, also indicated that most Iranians voted for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a controversial June 2009 election that many countries said was fixed.

Forty-seven percent of Iranians said sanctions ordered by the United Nations, and by individual countries, were having a big impact, said the poll of 700 people carried out in early September. Fifty three percent believed it is Iran's major foreign policy problem.

But 71 percent of Iranians want the country to have nuclear weapons and only 21 percent opposed such a move. Lead researcher Craig Charney said this compared to 52 percent support for nuclear weapons and 42 percent opposition in a similar poll in 2007.

The fourth round of sanctions was passed by the UN Security Council in June this year. Iran refuses to halt uranium enrichment but has denied the West's accusations that it is seeking a nuclear bomb.

Charney said the study shows "you can't just propose the grand bargain and expect Iranians to accept it straight away."

With international tensions rising, the poll indicated that the number of people who were pro-United States had fallen from 34 percent in 2008 to eight percent now. Sixty-eight percent believed that if there was an attack on Iran, it would come from the United States.

The poll also indicated broad support for Ahmadinejad, even though he is a mistrusted figure in the West, and other countries in the Middle East.

Sixty percent of those asked said they had voted for the populist Ahmadinejad in the June 2009 poll, close to the official figures released by the government.

IPI vice president Warren Hoge said the survey was ordered for a private Middle East forum in the United Arab Emirates held in early November and attended by 21 foreign ministers from the Middle East, Europe and Asia.

He said Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas and former British prime minister Tony Blair, the diplomatic Quartet's Middle East envoy, was among those present but declined to name the participants.

Charney said the poll was carried out by telephone from Istanbul.

earlier related report
Iran claims victory in nuclear talks
Tehran (AFP) Dec 8, 2010 - Iran claimed victory Wednesday in renewed talks with world powers over its controversial nuclear programme and vowed to make no concessions in the face of international pressure.

Chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili said the six world powers have accepted Tehran's conditions for the talks as Iran's conservative media praised Jalili for his "solid" stance.

"They joined the talks maintaining their own view, but Iran said the talks should continue based on Iran's conditions. So they have shown serious change," Jalili said of the talks that resumed this week.

"We frankly asked that talks should be for the sake of cooperation, and they accepted. If they remain committed to this agreement, then the talks have been successful," he said in an interview carried on state television's website.

After a 14-month break, the talks on the Islamic republic's nuclear programme resumed in Geneva this week, with an agreement to meet again in Istanbul at the end of January despite clear differences.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said after the two days of talks ended on Tuesday that it was agreed to hold the Istanbul talks to "discuss practical ideas and ways of cooperating towards the resolution of our core concerns about the nuclear issue."

Barely an hour later, however, Jalili said both sides agreed only to further "talks based on cooperation" and that everything else was "not true."

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad repeated Wednesday that the country would not back down on uranium enrichment, which is the key issue of international concern over Tehran's atomic programme.

The hardliner however said "Iran is ready for nuclear cooperation and nuclear material production with the group of P5+1," the official IRNA news agency reported, referring to the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany.

"Under no circumstances Iran will back down on its rights in nuclear fuel cycle, the 20-percent enrichment of uranium and building (nuclear) plants," he told university students in the central city of Arak.

"The West had better cooperate with Iran in the nuclear field," he said, calling on global powers to lift sanctions against Tehran.

Iran is under four sets of UN sanctions over its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment, the sensitive process which can be used to make nuclear fuel or, in highly extended form, the fissile core of an atom bomb.

Tehran rejects suspicions by the West and Israel that its uranium enrichment programme masks a covert bid to acquire nuclear weapons, maintaining it is developing nuclear technology for solely peaceful purposes.

Analysts said the Geneva talks have failed to dissipate deep distrust between world powers and Tehran, but that they marked the beginning of a new phase of dialogue.

Iran's conservative media Wednesday praised Jalili over his "solid" stance and hailed the talks as a good start.

"Jalili returned from Geneva with full hands," said a headline in Khabar, which is close to parliament speaker Ali Larijani.

Hardline newspaper Siasat Rouz, which is close to the Revolutionary Guards described the talks as a "first positive step."

"The 5+1 has to reach a great agreement with Iran," the pro-Ahmadinejad hardline newspaper Vatan Emrouz wrote in an editorial.

"They know well if there is another gap lasting a few months in talks with Iran there will be no issues left for an agreement as Iran might enrich 1,200 kilos of uranium to 20 percent and be self-sufficient in" nuclear fuel production, it said.