Iran will not give up its atomic energy programme, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in remarks published on Saturday before a visit to fellow OPEC-member Algeria.

"Iran has not demanded more than its right to nuclear energy. We are not ready to give up a single inch of this right," Ahmadinejad said in an interview with Algerian newspaper El Watan. "We will continue our efforts within the framework of international law. I can say that Iran is a nuclear state." (Reuters)