Iran has threatened to resume industrial-scale nuclear fuel production if it is referred to the UN Security Council by the world nuclear watchdog, which meets Monday.

The country's chief nuclear negotiator issued the warning on Sunday, a day before the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) meets in Vienna to decide whether to put Iran's nuclear program before the Security Council.

"If Iran's nuclear dossier is referred to the UN Security Council, [large-scale] uranium enrichment will be resumed," Ali Larijani told a news conference in Tehran.

Inside an Iranian uranium facility (AP file photo)

"If they want to use force, we will pursue our own path."

The United States and several other Western powers believe Iran wants to resume uranium enrichment to build nuclear weapons. Tehran insists it only wants to build nuclear power plants.

The IAEA's 35-nation board of governors agreed in early February to report Iran to the Security Council, which could impose sanctions.

Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani at a news conference in Tehran, on March 5. (AP photo/Hasan Sarbakhshian)

However, the board members deferred the move to their March 6 meeting so they could review a report from IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei.

"Going to the Security Council will certainly not make Iran go back on research and development," said Larijani, who is secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council.

He said Iran – which is the second-largest oil producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) – has no interest in using oil as a weapon against the West but did not rule it out.

Washington warns of 'painful consequences' if Iran persists

The U.S. envoy to the United Nations warned Sunday that Iran faces "tangible and painful consequences" if it carries on with its nuclear activities.

Ambassador John Bolton warned that the United States would use "all tools at our disposal" to stop Tehran.

"The Iran regime must be made aware that if it continues down the path of international isolation, there will be tangible and painful consequences," Bolton said at a conference in Washington.

Iran agreed to temporarily suspend its nuclear fuel work in November 2003 while in negotiations with the European Union, which was trying to persuade it to shelve the program entirely in exchange for economic and political incentives.

After the talks broke down, it announced in early 2006 that it was resuming uranium enrichment research and then said it was ending all snap UN inspections at its nuclear facilities.