Austria ? Tehran’s top nuclear envoy said Friday that Iran will not negotiate away its right to enrich uranium and shrugged off threats of possible U.N. action if Tehran insists on possessing technology that could be used to make the bomb.

On his first trip abroad as the nuclear point man for Tehran’s ultraconservative government, Ali Larijani delivered an old message: Iran will talk to anybody on reducing suspicions about its agenda but will not budge on its central argument that it is permitted to enrich uranium under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

Uranium is enriched by turning the raw ore into gas, which is then spun in centrifuges. Enriched to a low level, it can be used as fuel for a reactor; at a high level, it can be used for a bomb.

Larijani spoke to reporters after meeting with Mohamed ElBaradei, leader of the International Atomic Energy Agency, for discussions focusing on his country’s decision to resume uranium conversion – the precursor to enrichment.