Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Thursday he believed his dispute with the West over his country's nuclear program could be resolved through negotiations and that he was open to "new conditions".

"We are partisan to dialogue and negotiation and we believe that we can resolve the problems in a context of dialogue and of justice together," Ahmadinejad told a midnight news conference during a brief visit to Senegal's capital Dakar.

Asked whether Iran was willing to suspend its uranium enrichment programme, he reacted calmly to an earlier U.S. statement which said his government was "aggressively" pursuing atomic bombs and should face sanctions now.

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"I don't believe there will be sanctions because there is no reason to have sanctions. It would be preferable for the U.S. officials not to speak in anger," he said, with a smile.

"I am announcing that we are available, we are ready for new conditions," he added, without elaborating, before leaving to fly to a Non-Aligned Summit in Cuba.

Western leaders have condemned Iran's disregard of an Aug.
31 U.N. Security Council deadline to suspend its uranium enrichment program, which Iran says is meant only to produce electricity.

The Islamic Republic, while indicating openness to negotiate on a timing and duration of suspension, has been refusing to take that step before negotiations on a big power offer of trade incentives not to develop nuclear fuel.

On Wednesday, the United States ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency Gregory Schulte, released a statement saying Washington is convinced that Iran is determined to acquire the technology, materials and know-how necessary for the production of nuclear arms.

The statement follows a letter sent by Schulte to the IAEA director general, in which he specifies Iran's systematic breaches of the restrictions imposed by the international community on its nuclear program.

Among other things, the U.S. ambassador says that Iran has assembled an additional 164 centrifuges at its Nantz plant, thus doubling their number; it prevents IAEA inspectors from receiving the documentation on centrifuge activation; and IAEA inspection monitoring records were confiscated and destroyed.

The letter also mentions the fact that Iran continues with the construction of a plant in Araq, where a heavy water facility has recently begun operating; 120 tons of uranium was converted into gas, and now another 160 tons of uranium is to undergo the same process.

According to American predictions, these two actions would allow Tehran to produce a sufficient quantity of uranium gas for producing 40 nuclear bombs, once the gas is enriched.