Iran won't give up nuclear ambitions: Ahmadinejad

Iran will not back down from its nuclear ambitions despite new Western sanctions announced this week, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Wednesday in a speech broadcast on state television.

"The Iranian nation will not back down an iota, and will not allow the slightest move to encroach on the nation's rights," he told a crowd in the town of Pakdasht, east of Tehran.